Re: QUERY: Japanese word for "bull***."

Danny Wilde wrote:
> "Curt Fischer" <tentrillion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:3ioefaFml2drU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> mirror wrote:
>>> On Sat, 2 Jul 2005 12:56:00 +0900, "necoandjeff"
>>>
>>>>> "Tonde mo nai" is a polite expression often used by middle-aged
>>>>> ladies. The best English equivalent would be something like "Of
>>>>> course not".
>>>>
>>>> I'm assuming the reparsing above was done for some reason. Do you
>>>> always break up your keiyoushi with random spaces like that?
>>>
>>>
>>> Sometimes I break it up like that.
>>>
>>> "Tonde" is the signal for an action underway.
>>> "mo" signals "even that, more, also."
>>> "nai" signals "it ain't so," "ain't it so"
>>>
>>> aka...
>>>
>>> "The thing won't fly."
>>
>> I guess you missed the part about two posts above yours where
>> necoandjeff said:
>>
>>> But none of this changes the fact that tondemonai itself is a
>>> single word, and is not the -te inai from of the verb tobu (as many
>>> people
>>> mistakenly believe.)
>
> Or maybe he just didn't believe "Madare Jeff"'s detarame.
>
> "Madare Jeff" quite frequently comes out with lots of opinionated
> guff about things which he basically knows very little about. Perhaps
> he just looked in a dictionary or a web page which said "tonde mo
> nai" doesn't come from "tobu", then "otto ga futatsu Jeff" decides to
> pick a fight with someone, so he can practise his favourite hobby,
> arguing. The reality is that he knows no more about it than anyone
> else. "Madare Jeff" is certainly no expert linguist.

Nor is 叔母様 Danny an expert, or even that good at Japanese so far as I can
tell. And what I know of the word tondemonai, I got from a very good book I
read recently (that I would highly recommend) called 「問題な日本語」 edited
by 北原保雄. There is a whole chapter devoted to the word とんでもない. What
is your source of information Danny?

.