forgeron judo wrote:a discussion amongst peers revealed different expressions used to stimulate and encourage players. The most frequent words or expressions used are:
OSU- for press forward
Oushi- to carry on the practice as thought
OOzuru- to display your savoir faire or comply
OOsen- to accept the challenge given by the instructor.
Hai- to recognize that you understand and that you will comply
others are using abbreviations such as oossss, or osu short of ohayo Gozaimas.
Can a linguist bring out the right interpretation of meaning within the judo context?
Hi, Chinese/Japanese linguist, check, jûdôka with solid Japan experience, check, bank account details provided, check.
The "oush"-like sound that is heard often at the start of Japanese randori, and sometimes during is none of the above speculations, but is a contraction of "onegai shimasu" お願いします. It is NOT an abbreviation of Ohayô gozaimasu, which doesn't make sense, as you would not continuously shout "good morning" to each other while doing randori in the afternoon or evening ...
The second kanji comes from the verb "wagau" which means "to petition, to wish, to desire, to pray someone to". The preceding 'o' makes it honorific. And "shimasu" comes from the verb "suru" which means "to do". Putting all together in a bag and shaking it, leads to the expression "please". There really is no set explanation for it in jûdô, just as regarding bowing. What precisely is said with bowing ? It's usually explained as a form of respect; you could say it is "to thank your opponent for practice", but people who hate each other and aren't in the habit of thanking others, bow too, so ... During the randori, the "oush" probably doesn't literally translate as "please" anymore but has come to mean "C'mon", "let's go", although it does not literally mean that.
By the way 御早う ohayô literally means "early", with "o" put in front as honorific, from there derived "good morning".
"Gozaimasu" also is a word, which I have noticed virtually no one today seems to know anymore where it comes from". Well the reason is that most people now write it in hiragana. If they would still write it in kanji the meaning obviously would reveal itself, as it really is a conjugation of "go de aru", with "aru" meaning "to be" and "go" being the honorific.
The "oush" is part of the Japanese dôjô sound. It's a very specific sound. It's not prsent at the Kôdôkan, but you can still hear it at the Meiji dôjô. When you walk outside on the street you can here it. It's the bouncing of the steel coil springs and tatami, mixed with the sounds of frequent ukemi and the sound of other jûdôka encouraging those who are going on. I have never heard that sound in any other country but Japan. It was present at our police academy in Kyôto too. It has some hypnotic effect in terms of pushing you, without ever being agressive.
"Hai" is indeed sometimes heard during randori, but during specific sentences, like when you had a bad fall, or are gassed, and your younger or more stronger opponent gives you a couple of extra seconds to catch your breath or there is some uncertainty as to whether you have actually injured yourself, then often you should 'hai' as the green light that you are ready to go ahead.
"Yoi" 好い (or "yoshi") comes from 好 which means 'good' but also 'ready'.
When third parties encourage someone during a sports contest in Japan, they often shout: "ganbate", written 頑張って and which is the imperative of the verb ganbaru which means "to persevere", so it means "hold on", "go for it" !
Japanese also has many "interjections" and onomatopoeia-like sounds that don't translate into proper words, and that are almost "verbalized" punctuations to emphasize something and add feeling or appreciation or rejection to a phrase.
This knowledge mixed with kiai that may sound quite different depending on the individual leads to a variety of sounds that may be heard in Japanese dôjô, not all of them that would have an actual semantic meaning.
When the Korean team come over, you may occasionally hear "koroshite" 殺して ...
(for info regarding sounds in/from the soaplands, I defer to NBK-san for expertise ...)
Last edited by Cichorei Kano on Thu Feb 13, 2014 12:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
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