Saturday, April 18, 2009

同音異義語(doon igigo): Homonym

There are many doon igigo(同音異義語), homonyms in Japanese.
For example today is April 18, which is written as 418 and read as yo (4) i (1) ha (8). Therefore today is yoi ha no hi (よいはのひ). If we write it in hiragana, we can imagine many things, because there are many homonyms of ha (は). If we write ha (は) in kanji, we know the meaning easily.
Actually today is yoi ha no hi (よい歯の日), Day of good teeth and yoi ha no hi (よい刃の日), Day of good blade.   Day of good teeth was established in 1993 by Nihon shika ishikai(日本歯科医師会), Japan Dental Association. Day of good blade is just from pun.

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