やはり

Japanese

Alternative spellings
矢張り 矢張

Alternative forms

• (emphatic) やっぱり (yappari)
• (informal) やっぱ (yappa), やっぱし (yappashi)

Etymology

Frellesvig views the pronunciation yahari as a hypercorrect back-formation from やっぱり (yappari), since intervocalic -p- would typically yield -w- and not -h- in modern Japanese. Compare the yapa- root in 柔(やわ)らか (yaparaka → yawaraka, “soft; pliant”), thought to be related. The pronunciation may be due to a spelling pronunciation of やはり, which could ambiguously represent yawari, yafari~yahari, or yappari in older texts. Dictionaries generally consider やはり the older form.

/japari/ → /jaɸari/ → /jahari/

/japari/ → (emphatic) /jappari/ → (back-formation) /jahari/

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ja̠ha̠ɾʲi]
• (Tokyo) やはり [yàháꜜrì] (Nakadaka – [2])

Adverb

やはり • (yahari) 

1. as I thought; as expected; after all (is said and done)

   やはり誰(だれ)も来(こ)なかった。 ― yahari dare mo konakatta. ― No one came. (literally, “As I predicted, not even someone came.”)

   やはりあいつだったか。 ― yahari aitsu datta ka. ― So it really was him.

   やはりだめでした。 ― yahari dame deshita. ― Still no good. (literally, “As I feared, it was not effective.”)

   やはり故郷(ふるさと)が一番(いちばん)落(お)ち着(つ)く。 ― yahari furusato ga ichiban ochitsuku. ― In the end, nothing beats home. (literally, “In the end, my hometown is most relaxing.”)

   やはり危険(きけん)だ。 ― yahari kiken da. ― It truly is dangerous. (literally, “I've returned to the conclusion that it is dangerous.”)