白河夜船

Japanese

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
白	河	夜	船
しら Grade: 1	かわ Grade: 5	よ Grade: 2	ふね Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Alternative spellings
白川夜船白川夜舟

From a folk story in which someone who pretended to have visited Kyōto was asked about Shirakawa (白河/白川), misinterpreted it as the name of a river, and answered that he or she didn't know because he or she crossed it on a night boat.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) しらかわよふね [shìrákáwá yóꜜfùnè] (Nakadaka – [5])^[3]^[6]^[4]
IPA^(key): [ɕiɾa̠ka̠β̞a̠ jo̞ɸɯ̟ne̞]

Idiom

白(しら)河(かわ)夜(よ)船(ふね) • (shirakawa yofune) ^{←しらかはよふね (sirakafayofune)^?}

being fast asleep, dead to the world when sleeping
pretending to know everything, a know-it-all manner

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
白	河	夜	船
しら Grade: 1	かわ Grade: 5	よ Grade: 2	ふね > ぶね Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Alternative spellings
白川夜船白川夜舟

/ɕirakawa yofune/ → /ɕirakawa yobune/

Shift in reading for the 夜船 portion. The fune changes to bune as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

Idiom

白(しら)河(かわ)夜(よ)船(ぶね) • (shirakawa yobune) ^{←しらかはよぶね (sirakafayobune)^?}

Alternative form of 白河夜船 (shirakawa yofune)

References

^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
^ Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
^ “白河夜船”, in 日本大百科全書：ニッポニカ (Nippon Dai Hyakka Zensho: Nipponica, “Encyclopedia Nipponica”)‎^[1] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 1984
^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

[KDJ-1] Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

[DJS-2] Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN

[DJR-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[SMK5-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[5] “白河夜船”, in 日本大百科全書：ニッポニカ (Nippon Dai Hyakka Zensho: Nipponica, “Encyclopedia Nipponica”)‎^[1] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 1984

[NHK-6] NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

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