Tag Archives: learn chinese

I find the etymology of Japanese words super interesting, partly because it helps me remember my vocab, and partly for its own sake. I’m going to try to work my way through translating the first volume of Piano no Mori, a manga about two boys of very different backgrounds who grow up playing the piano. I love this story, and I hope that will motivate me to put time into this project. Just on the first page, we see quite a few interesting etymologies. 宮 (miya) means palace or shrine. (In Chinese, 宮 (gong1) also means palace.) Miya is actually a compound word in Japanese, from 神 (kami, meaning god or spirit) and 屋 (ya, meaning house).