Language Cheat Reincarnation – Young Girl VTuber Saves the World

It feels like there was a similar misunderstanding before…

Oh, right, I remember. It was when I was confessed to by Ilyena behind the school building.

I found out about it later from Ilyena's stream.

She apparently misunderstood what I said and ended up debuting as a VTuber.

Well, at the time, I never imagined she was talking about me.

It seems that our connection is based on this kind of "misunderstanding."

<…Words really are difficult.>

<Indeed! Shall we return to talking about language?>

Oh, no, that's not what I meant.

This misunderstanding is leading to even more misunderstandings. Well, I'm glad the topic is changing, though.

<If I remember correctly, we were talking about how the meaning of words can easily change depending on context in Japanese, right?>

<That's right. We call that "high-context." It also relates to the significant impact of context.>

?The meaning changes with context, huh (space)

?…I've got it!

?Iroha-chan is tiny today, too!

<Hey, who just commented that!?>

?Iroha-chan, this is also context effect (space)

?Misunderstandings are scary

?No one even said that Iroha-chan's height or chest size is small, though (text)

This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.

<Don't unite only in times like this!?>

<Exactly! Iroha-sama is small and cute today, too!>

<Thank you! But that doesn't help at all, does it!?>

With a sigh, I removed the wordplay text that had been left on the streaming screen.

Perhaps noticing this, Ilyena says,

<Earlier, we were talking about homophones, but in Japanese, there are also cases where the same characters have different readings, right?>

<You mean things like on'yomi and kun'yomi?>

<That's part of it, but what really frustrates me are counters!>

<Ah~>

?I’ve heard that even Japanese people find counters difficult (text)

?Just for counting cakes, there are "dai", "hall", "tsu", "piece", "kire", "ko", and so many (space)

?↑I’m Japanese, but I didn’t know "dai" was a thing

<And on top of having so many types, the pronunciation changes depending on the number. It's hell!>

<"Hai", "hon", "bun"… and also "kai", right?>

<Exactly!>

<There are various reasons for those pronunciation changes. For example, "rendaku."

<What’s that?>

<From the examples I mentioned, "sangai" is one. Another would be "mikazuki" or "hizashi." In Japanese, when two words come together, the latter word sometimes becomes voiced.>

<Indeed, it seems the pronunciation changes from the original reading.>

<There’s also "ika", or dissimilation.>

<Dissimilation?>

<For example, "nanoka." Normally, it would be pronounced as "nanaka", but to make it easier to hear… or to say, the pronunciation gradually changes.>

<I see.>

<Well, there’s also the opposite phenomenon, like "ototoi", where the pronunciation was unified from "ototsui", called "assimilation." It can get confusing.>

<My head is starting to spin. Also, words like "mikazuki", "hizashi", "nanoka", and "ototoi"… there are too many readings for "day" in Japanese! And again!?> fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

<True. Oh, how about this sentence? I just thought of it on the spot, so feel free to tweak it if you can make it more interesting…>

I type up another text and display it on the streaming screen.

The content is…

"Today is January 1st, a holiday. In Japanese, the day before yesterday of tomorrow is called yesterday, and that day was New Year's Eve and a Sunday."

?I can read it, but looking at it calmly, it's pretty insane www

?How many readings for "day" are in there? And they’re all different, too

?And there are even more readings beyond this…

<Another similar pattern is "sei", which also has many readings.>

[A flower-arranging pure girl, whose livelihood was working with raw silk, made a living. Her upbringing was not easy. Unfortunately, from the moment she was born until now, she has been pure through and through.]

<Even Japanese people would struggle to read this, right?>

<Indeed. "Sei" has various readings, too, and I think there are 158 in total.>

<Please, give me a break! Iroha-sama!? I think it's getting too complicated again!>

<I did it unconsciously!?>

?Th-thanks… Ilyena, nice save! (space)

?Well, it was totally fine? No problem? Phew~

?↑There’s smoke coming out of your head

<Uh, um… To summarize, I mentioned earlier that it's common for words and characters to change with time, and that applies to pronunciation as well. Readings also change over time.>

<Nothing stays the same. This kind of thing probably happens in all languages.>

<Yes, indeed. For example, in English, when the same sounds continue, they can change. Words themselves can change, like L becoming R, or R becoming L.>

<By the way, English doesn’t have counters, right?>

<Well, it's a bit different from Japanese counters, but it's not that they don’t exist at all.>

<Oh, really?>

<For example, as mentioned in the comments earlier, you can say "a piece of cake."

<I see. That’s… certainly "a piece of cake" compared to Japanese!>

Ilyena says jokingly.

Is English easy, or is Japanese hard?

That’s something that might be open to interpretation.

I shrugged and smiled wryly in front of the monitor, thinking about that――.

***

※Reading answers:

[The flower-arranging pure girl, whose livelihood was working with raw silk, made a living. Her upbringing was not easy. Unfortunately, from the moment she was born until now, she has been pure through and through.]