Language Cheat Reincarnation – Young Girl VTuber Saves the World

It feels like there was a similar misunderstanding before…

Oh, right, I remember. It was when I was confessed to by Ilyena behind the school building.

I found out about it later from Ilyena's stream.

She apparently misunderstood what I said and ended up debuting as a VTuber.

Well, at the time, I never imagined she was talking about me.

It seems that our connection is based on this kind of "misunderstanding."

<…Words really are difficult.>

<Indeed! Shall we return to talking about language?>

Oh, no, that's not what I meant.

This misunderstanding is leading to even more misunderstandings. Well, I'm glad the topic is changing, though.

<If I remember correctly, we were talking about how the meaning of words can easily change depending on context in Japanese, right?>

<That's right. We call that "high-context." It also relates to the significant impact of context.>

≫The meaning changes with context, huh (space)

≫…I've got it!

≫Iroha-chan is tiny today, too!

<Hey, who just commented that!?>

≫Iroha-chan, this is also context effect (space)

≫Misunderstandings are scary

≫No one even said that Iroha-chan's height or chest size is small, though (text)

<Don't unite only in times like this!?>

<Exactly! Iroha-sama is small and cute today, too!>

<Thank you! But that doesn't help at all, does it!?>

With a sigh, I removed the wordplay text that had been left on the streaming screen.

Perhaps noticing this, Ilyena says,

<Earlier, we were talking about homophones, but in Japanese, there are also cases where the same characters have different readings, right?>

<You mean things like on'yomi and kun'yomi?>

<That's part of it, but what really frustrates me are counters!>

<Ah~>

≫I’ve heard that even Japanese people find counters difficult (text)

≫Just for counting cakes, there are "dai", "hall", "tsu", "piece", "kire", "ko", and so many (space)

≫↑I’m Japanese, but I didn’t know "dai" was a thing

<And on top of having so many types, the pronunciation changes depending on the number. It's hell!>

<"Hai", "hon", "bun"… and also "kai", right?>

<Exactly!>

<There are various reasons for those pronunciation changes. For example, "rendaku."

<What’s that?>

<From the examples I mentioned, "sangai" is one. Another would be "mikazuki" or "hizashi." In Japanese, when two words come together, the latter word sometimes becomes voiced.>

<Indeed, it seems the pronunciation changes from the original reading.>

<There’s also "ika", or dissimilation.>

<Dissimilation?>

<For example, "nanoka." Normally, it would be pronounced as "nanaka", but to make it easier to hear… or to say, the pronunciation gradually changes.>

<I see.>

<Well, there’s also the opposite phenomenon, like "ototoi", where the pronunciation was unified from "ototsui", called "assimilation." It can get confusing.>

<My head is starting to spin. Also, words like "mikazuki", "hizashi", "nanoka", and "ototoi"… there are too many readings for "day" in Japanese! And again!?>

<True. Oh, how about this sentence? I just thought of it on the spot, so feel free to tweak it if you can make it more interesting…>

I type up another text and display it on the streaming screen.

The content is…

"Today is January 1st, a holiday. In Japanese, the day before yesterday of tomorrow is called yesterday, and that day was New Year's Eve and a Sunday."

≫I can read it, but looking at it calmly, it's pretty insane www

≫How many readings for "day" are in there? And they’re all different, too

≫And there are even more readings beyond this…

<Another similar pattern is "sei", which also has many readings.>

[A flower-arranging pure girl, whose livelihood was working with raw silk, made a living. Her upbringing was not easy. Unfortunately, from the moment she was born until now, she has been pure through and through.]

<Even Japanese people would struggle to read this, right?>

<Indeed. "Sei" has various readings, too, and I think there are 158 in total.>

<Please, give me a break! Iroha-sama!? I think it's getting too complicated again!>

<I did it unconsciously!?>

≫Th-thanks… Ilyena, nice save! (space)

≫Well, it was totally fine? No problem? Phew~

≫↑There’s smoke coming out of your head

<Uh, um… To summarize, I mentioned earlier that it's common for words and characters to change with time, and that applies to pronunciation as well. Readings also change over time.>

<Nothing stays the same. This kind of thing probably happens in all languages.>

<Yes, indeed. For example, in English, when the same sounds continue, they can change. Words themselves can change, like L becoming R, or R becoming L.>

<By the way, English doesn’t have counters, right?>

<Well, it's a bit different from Japanese counters, but it's not that they don’t exist at all.>

<Oh, really?>

<For example, as mentioned in the comments earlier, you can say "a piece of cake."

<I see. That’s… certainly "a piece of cake" compared to Japanese!>

Ilyena says jokingly.

Is English easy, or is Japanese hard?

That’s something that might be open to interpretation.

I shrugged and smiled wryly in front of the monitor, thinking about that――.

***

※Reading answers:

[The flower-arranging pure girl, whose livelihood was working with raw silk, made a living. Her upbringing was not easy. Unfortunately, from the moment she was born until now, she has been pure through and through.]