| Author |
Message |
    
Kage
| | Posted on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 06:03 pm: | |
I've been taking Japanese for about 2 years now, and I've been taught that the word for father is "chichi". Now I also know that it means something else too, and if the word is mistaken for that it could be quite embarassing. So is there a more common way of saying father in modern Japanese because of this, or is the difference just understood in context, like "kami"? |
Ms. Anon
| | Posted on Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 01:34 am: | |
Father is "chichi (父)" in Japanese. The word you have in mind is "chichi（乳)," the word meaning mother's milk or woman's breast. There are many homonyms in Japanese, thus the confusion. Any Japanese will understand which one you mean by context.
Also, there are various forms of addressing a person, so a father will be called:
"Otosan" or "papa (Western loan word)" by his child.
You use the word "chichi" when speaking objectively, such as reference to your father who is not present or refering to the father image or fathers collectively, etc. |
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