Talk:水無月

Could someone tell me please to what time of the Jewish year does this correspond? 88.153.187.31 20:46, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Could na be from nai (無)?

Since 水無月 (minazuki) uses the kanji for "without", 無, which can be read as nai, I wonder if Minazuki is from Minaitsuki. Can someone who knows Japanese well comment on this? -- Sundar (talk) 01:26, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Checking my references, the w:Man'yōshū has two poems that have the kanji spelling 六月 and the traditional kana reading of みなづき: volume 3 poem 320, and volume 10 poem 1995. If the month name had appeared as minaitsuki, I'd expect evidence of this, but I'm just not finding any.

Also, if you can read Japanese, the corresponding page at Kotobank (https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B0%B4%E7%84%A1%E6%9C%88-639070) has multiple references included, and those that describe any word derivation are consistent in denoting the na element as a separate morpheme. The w:Nihon Kokugo Daijiten entry there also has this etymological note:

( 「みなつき」とも。「な」は「ない」の意に意識されて「無」の字があてられるが、本来は「の」の意で、「水の月」「田に水を引く必要のある月」の意であろうという )

(Also attested as minatsuki [without voicing on the つ]. The "na" is spelled with the character 無 out of a perception of the "na" meaning nai ["not, none"], but this originally had the meaning of の [no, the genitive / possessive particle], so the meaning was probably something like 水の月 [mizu no tsuki, "water month / month of water"] or 田に水を引く必要のある月 [ta ni mizu o hiku hitsuyō no aru tsuki, "month when it is necessary to draw water into the paddies"].)

HTH! ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 21:38, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

@Eirikr: Thank you for the detailed explanation! -- Sundar (talk) 01:34, 26 June 2024 (UTC)