ah so
Mark A. Mandel
Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM
Fri Apr 13 19:31:58 UTC 2001
Natalie asks about the origin of "ah so". In Japanese, "Ah, so desu ka?"
(the "u" is voiceless or elided) is a very common backchannel response, ~~
"Oh, is that so?"
Given most Americans' level of awareness of the difference(s) between
Chinese and Japanese -- whether referring to the people or the languages --
it doesn't surprise me to find a phrase of Japanese origin, as I think it
is, attributed to a Chinese character.
-- Mark
Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com
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