Re: Honorific and extra modest expressions

Danny Wilde wrote:

"Konrad Viltersten (Den Ende)" <tmp1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1113679035.936c77dbb9779783efb1f90d7e576d38@xxxxxxxxxxx

In お持ちいたしましょうか, the person whose bag you're
offering to carry is elevated...



Thanks for the answer - i think i got it. This one,
however, got me thinking. I understand this:
お - honorific
待ち - to carry, to hold, verb stem, masu-form
いた - ?!
しょう - volitional form
か - question mark
but what is that "いた" doing in there?


In Japanese it's necessary to have good manners. Manners is "mana" in Japanese. So, when we talk humbly, we use this "ita", which is in fact the well-known Japanese "mana-ita". Incidentally, Japanese people also are very polite about their food. For example, a fish, which is "sakana" in Japanese, is called "sakana-san", "Mr/Mrs Fish". To remember that it's necessary to show the due respect when chopping up Mr Fish, Japanese people also call a chopping board by the name "mana-ita".

The "ka" here may look like a question mark, but in fact it's the well-known Japanese "mana-ka". Incidentally, people who live in the centre of town often have a lot of social engagements, and they have to be polite. So they often say "machi (town) no manaka ni sunde imasu" = I live in the part of town where we have to say the "good-manners ka". By extension, this "mana-ka" is now the polite way of talking about the centre of town, or the centre of anything.

Other "mana" words include "mana-bu". The Japanese word "bu" means to study, so a "bu-otoko" is a male student, but "manabu" is a more polite way to talk about study.

I hope this answer is helpful.

I'm coming late to things, but I just want to say for the record that I found this answer neither helpful nor humorous.

--
Curt Fischer

.

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