Top: Introduction and Contents >> 6. Word origins
The best guess of scholars is that there was a suffix "-ya" in the Nara era, meaning "softness", followed by a sufix "-ka", meaning "visible" "apparent", thus the original nuance of "xxxx-yaka" was "looks slightly xxxx".
This yaka was attached to nouns, adjective stems, onamatapoetic words, and other words that express a state (joutai), forming adjectives. It expresses the meaning "not [the thing] itself, but almost like it; not in that state, but almost so; it's just as if ..."
Anciently, it was used the same way as the suffix "raka", which has a similar meaning, but "yaka" became more common beginning in the Heian period. Also, "yaka" is seen more commonly than "raka" in more psychological, subjective words; it is considered to express somewhat of a distance from the object.
Yaka is not a productive suffix; you can't add it to words and make a new word with it, as you can with, for example, sou (see 5.2.1. What are the uses of the sou ending? ).
TO DO #37: priority: high: Give some usage examples
Here is a table of some of the yaka words:| Japanese (rōmaji) | Japanese (kanji/kana) | Meaning | Similar Japanese words |
|---|---|---|---|
| adeyaka | 艶やか | bewitching, fascinatingly elegant | |
| azayaka | 鮮やか | vivid, clear, brilliant | |
| hanayaka | 花やか・華やか | gay, showy, brilliant, gorgeous, florid | |
| hiyayaka | 冷やか | cold, chilly, cool, indifferent, cold-hearted, surly, curt, composed | |
| karoyaka | 軽やか | light, easy, non-serious, minor | |
| karuyaka | 軽やか | light, easy, non-serious, minor | |
| kirabiyaka | 煌びやか・綺羅びやか | gorgeous, gaudy, dazzling, gay | |
| komayaka | 細やか | friendly | |
| maroyaka | 円やか | round, circular, spherical, mild (taste) | |
| miyabiyaka | 雅びやか | elegant, graceful | |
| nagoyaka | 和やか | mild, calm, gentle, quiet, harmonious | |
| nigiyaka | 賑やか | bustling, busy | |
| nobiyaka | 伸びやか | comfortable, carefree | |
| odayaka | 穏やか | calm, gentle, quiet | |
| sasayaka | 細やか | meagre, meager, modest | |
| sawayaka | 爽やか | fresh, refreshing, invigorating, clear, fluent, eloquent | |
| shinayaka | 嫋か | supple, flexible, elastic | |
| shinobiyaka | 忍びやか | stealthy, secret | |
| shitoyaka | 淑やか | graceful | |
| sukoyaka | 健やか | vigorous, healthy, sound | |
| sumiyaka | 速やか | speed | |
| taoyaka | 嫋やか | willowy, graceful | |
| tsuyayaka | 艶やか | glossy, beautiful | |
| yuruyaka | 緩やか | lenient | yurui, loose. |
This table was extracted from Jim Breen's Edict.
This article was edited from posts by muchan, Bart Mathias.
Copyright (c) 1994-2006 Ben Bullock
Questions? Corrections? Comments? Contact: benkasminbullock@gmail.com