I just finished 君は放課後インソムニア 2 | L23. Volume 2 was solid and I’ll continue the series for now. It’s a bit long at 14 volumes, but I knew that going in. It does continue to be so strange structurally. Besides the aforementioned punctuation ending every speech bubble, yesterday I noticed that most pages include a small number indicating how far into the chapter you are. As in, not the page number of the volume but the page number of the chapter. And it’s just in a tiny font above a random panel. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before!
I’m so close to running out of physical manga to read (excluding series I’m not in the mood for) that I may have to dip into some of the standalones I’ve had sitting around for a while. I tend to not get to those because I always want to read from ongoing series to help decide whether to order more volumes, but maybe it’s time. The standalones I’m most likely to read are 神様がうそをつく。 | L24 and 蛍火の杜へ | L23, but I also have 魔法少女サン&ムーン~推定62歳~ | L25??.
And the example sentences have bible vibes (ok, references, but I wanna call them bible vibes) which is full of classical sounding Japanese like that, so that’s another sign. アーメン
Well, 救う does become 救わない and 過ごす (in potential form) does become 過ごせない, so I think it still tracks with the usual ない (ぬ) → ん transformation.
That said, んがため does still seem to be some kind of holdover from classical grammar since が appearing where you’d expect の in modern Japanese is a feature of classical grammar, and normally you’d use のために. Another common example is 我が, as in 我が社 or 我が子
I wonder if there’s any relation to this classical grammar point: 「む・むず」 - 古典文法. My understanding of this grammar point is very low and I don’t generally know etymology, so I could be completely off track.
That’s what the link from @bungakushoujo says it comes from. I didn’t even know about it. I remember learning the んがため grammar point when I was studying for N1 from a list, thinking it was from ぬ, not really understanding and just learning it the hard way. It’s nice to finally get an answer on that front.
Cool, thanks. I was thinking that if it was related it was most likely the よう usage, so it’s good to confirm. It’s also a funny one because if you associate the ん with the modern ない・ぬ instead of the classical む, you could accidentally conclude that んがため means the opposite of what it actually means.
I finished うんちの行方 | L35 earlier this week and it was great! I bought it in a bookwalker sale for fun because the title made me laugh (yes, childish ), but it was surprisingly super interesting!! This is a strange statement to make, but I unironically feel like my life has been enriched somehow now that I know how toilets and waste water treatment work and how humans dealt with getting rid of excrement throughout the ages. It is a part of the human experience and challenge of living on the earth. I’m glad to live in the year 2024 with modern sanitation, though.
I’m still working on 「させていただく」の使い方 日本語と敬語のゆくえ 角川新書 | L32?? which is likewise great. I’ve had several lightbulb moments while reading it and the insights into keigo in general are very interesting.
I think I am on a non-fiction knowledge kick this week! Really happy to have lucked out with two randomly chosen great books from bookwalker sales.
If you still want to know more about it, this Akutagawa-Prize winner deals with it: 糞尿譚 | L40
(no, I still haven’t finished it, but I will do so at some point )
Odd coincidence – I just had to look that up to answer a question on the WK forum (in that case about a line of dialogue from somebody speaking in an archaic style). I hadn’t thought to tie it to んがため – like @Naphthalene I just learnt that pattern by rote.
Incidentally Classical has two ぬ – the one that has survived into modern Japanese as a negation is actually the rentaikei (== before-nouns) conjugation of the negative auxiliary ず (which also survives here and there, e.g. 恥知らず “shameless person”). There is also a ぬ auxiliary which means the action has been completed. You can tell them apart because ず follows the mizenkei of a verb (知らぬ) and ぬ follows the renyoukei (知りぬ). But I think this is more of a trap for people learning classical rather than a concern for people reading modern Japanese, because the ぬ auxiliary didn’t survive in that form (it is the ancestor of the modern volitional conjugation, apparently).
Edit: oh, the “action completed” ぬ is the one in the title of the Ghibli movie 風立ちぬ – it’s “the wind has risen”, not “the wind does not rise”
I’ve written my 100th review! There’s no fancy status update for finishing the book, since it was a re-read, but here’s the review for anyone who’s curious:
Onto more reviews!
(Also, looking at that level on that book, I realize I have no idea if any of my gradings for it are accurate… It’s been a long time since I first read it, and all of my gradings are based on that…)
クラにか: Caught up on the latest chapters of the web novel for クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった | L27 (my favorite romance series). The drama that’s been foreshadowed for multiple books is emerging, and I’m enjoying. It’s making me want to reread the series from the beginning! It’s really nice, reading an LN/WN that’s super exciting and comfortable to read
I can’t decide whether to read the physicals or the WN (which I’ve only read recent chapters), if I do reread
drama spoilers, if anyone cares
Yuu (second female lead, first cutest girl in The class ), who is also Umi’s (first lead, Maki’s 彼女) best friend, and really close friends with Maki (male lead, Umi’s 彼氏), has unintentionally developed romantic feelings for the first time… for Maki. The main couple just found out secondhand from a mutual friend, and are being surprisingly mature about it… only to wind up at a family barbecue with Yuu, shortly after.
I’m really curious whether it’s gonna break their friends group for a bit. The group is composed of the 4 ppl above, plus another guy, who has 片想い for the 2nd lead
Monologue Woven For You: Rereading 君に紡ぐ傍白 2 | L21 - which is nice. It’s a bit of less thrilling then my first time, since I still remember the major plot points, but it’s also become something I can “just read”, which is great. Also it’s full color!!
義妹生活: Started 義妹生活 | L31 b/c I’ve been really enamoured with the anime, and I realized there’s only 3 episodes left this season, but 12 light novels so far. It has an audio book, narrated by the female lead’s voice actor - so it’s helping me with my September listening challenge (I’m sooooooo far behind!!). It’s decent so far, but not too far in yet, so we’ll see
Powered through the rest of コンビニ人間コンビニ人間 | L30 today. I thought it was okay, not really for me, though. 古倉さん’s condition made her interesting to read at first, but also meant that she didn’t really change over the novel, if that makes sense. Her younger sister was way more interesting, especially seeing her in denial about her sister’s condition.
I think that book is great until she meets the guy. He is absolutely atrocious and I hated every second I read with him in it. It feels like this person could exist, so I think it’s good writing and a good character, but it doesn’t mean I had to like him. I also don’t think she entirely lacks a character arc because she thinks she needs to make all of these changes but then decides she already knows what’s best for her. Which isn’t super satisfying, but again, does feel realistic.
I finished 「させていただく」の使い方 日本語と敬語のゆくえ 角川新書 | L36 and feel like I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about 敬語 and させていただく (in a psychological sense?) that I didn’t have before. The first half of the book was the most entertaining, and then the second half had research results and analysis which was a bit academic and dry. I kept trying to read this book at times I wanted to unwind, so that’s less of a knock against the book and more towards me for picking the wrong time to read it. Oh well.
Anyways, about させていただく and general 敬語 learnings! (Warning, General summary and spoilers of some things from the book about pragmatics research related to 敬語). The most interesting thing from this book was the idea of 敬語漸減, which is an observable phenomenon where phrases feels less and less polite over time until they cross a line and start to sound rude, and then something new is needed to fill the vacuum. That’s where させていただく comes in as a solution to 敬語 inflation. As for people feeling like it’s wrong or weird, research shows that feeling isn’t there if the sentence involves あなた, but if you’re just talking about yourself as in 卒業させていただきました older people especially find this incorrect language usage. Younger people tend to perceive it as more natural and use it in a wider variety of cases, so there is a generational shift happening. There are even already signs of inflation and 敬語漸減 happening with させていただく and we may get a new form of in in the near future such as させていただきたく存じます！
Another very interesting thing was that 敬語 is psychologically not necessarily about showing respect, it’s more self-based and is an act of showing that you can speak politely and behave well to whomever you are speaking with. In a roundabout way that becomes respectful since you’re showing they’re worth you showing you’re polite to them. Going down the sociolinguistic or pragmatics rabbit hole is sometimes like whoa dude.
It’s fun to read stuff like that sometimes! I know it’s not for everyone, but I really recommend at who is interested in improving their meta-knowledge of Japanese check out some linguistics or grammar deep dive books for natives sometime. You get insights into nuance that it’s hard to pick up just from exposure to native content.
Now I am reading 箱男 | L41 and, oh my god. Another profoundly weird one. It’s all about men who decide to go live inside cardboard boxes with little peephole windows so they can see out of them. The beginning of the book has detailed instructions on how to make the box, so now I want to go find a box and try….coincidentally, a movie adaptation is out in Japan right now and the trailer is very intriguing. Excited for the rest of the book!
I looked up many words while reading it and am always learning as I go too! The best way to become able to read things like that in Japanese is to start reading them.
I finished my 3rd novel! It’s the second junior novel volume of 本好き。The first I finished was the first volume, and in between I read セーラー服と機関銃 with the Wanikani IBC. It is 33% shorter than volume 1, but I also finished it 66% faster so I guess my reading speed has improved There was like 5 months of a harder novel and many manga in the middle though.
Tomorrow I’ll probably finish the ウスズミの果て manga. Then I’ll probably start on Frieren volume 4, since my physical copy just arrived, and find a new novel to read as well (maybe the third junior novel volume of 本好き, maybe Spy X Family volume 1, maybe 週末に何してますか since it’s about to get dropped from the IBC polls).
Started rereading the physicals for クラにか. I’ll switch to web novel for book 4, since it won’t get here till the end of the month. My reading speed seems to be slightly slower this time - more relaxed mood, and also much more thorough about lookups. I finished 178/344 (instead of 195) for day 1. Comprehension is much smoother tho, and it’s fun looking forward to certain parts
I want to try more of the web novel at this point, but I need to progress on my “use 100% of what I buy” rule (I’m up to 45%, not counting the incoming books). I could switch midway through the book, but that just feels weird
アーメン
), but it was surprisingly super interesting!! This is a strange statement to make, but I unironically feel like my life has been enriched somehow now that I know how toilets and waste water treatment work and how humans dealt with getting rid of excrement throughout the ages. 
It is a part of the human experience and challenge of living on the earth. I’m glad to live in the year 2024 with modern sanitation, though.
)
There’s no fancy status update for finishing the book, since it was a re-read, but here’s the review for anyone who’s curious:
), who is also Umi’s (first lead, Maki’s 彼女) best friend, and really close friends with Maki (male lead, Umi’s 彼氏), has unintentionally developed romantic feelings for the first time… for Maki. The main couple just found out secondhand from a mutual friend, and are being surprisingly mature about it… only to wind up at a family barbecue with Yuu, shortly after.
Something like that I wouldn’t feel confident at all in reading in Japanese.
There was like 5 months of a harder novel and many manga in the middle though.
