# 燃料 残少



## Muz1234

What kanji are these? From 1982 film, Empire of Japan...


----------



## Joschl

燃料 残少
成功 算ナシ
引返ス


----------



## gengo

You probably don't need this, but just in case it helps, the translation is:

fuel:  low
no chance of success
turning back

In the WWII era, katakana was used where hiragana would be used today.  Also, the middle one is sometimes written as 成算無し.


----------



## Flaminius

gengo said:


> In the WWII era, katakana was used where hiragana would be used today.


To be more accurate, katakana was the first set of glyphs that was taught in paedagogy.


----------



## gengo

Flaminius said:


> To be more accurate, katakana was the first set of glyphs that was taught in paedagogy.



I'm not sure what you mean, but I believe my statement was accurate.

WWII era:  引返ス
now:  引返す


----------



## Flaminius

Oh, I skipped the most important condition in my sentence above:
To be more accurate, katakana was the first set of glyphs that was taught in the pre-1945 paedagogy.

I must iterate that 引返す was also possible in the time depicted in the movie.  Again, I don't know what motivated practice of mixing katakana with kanji, but this was possible way before the WWII aera.


----------



## Joschl

恥も外聞もなく馬鹿な質問をさせて下さい。「残少」は形容動詞「残り少な (のこりすくな/のこりずくな)」の送り仮名がない書き方であると理解して良いのでしょうか。


----------



## Flaminius

まず、日本における漢字使用には、外山滋比古がいった通り、発音することがまるで意図されないものがあります。例。今春は「こんしゅん」の発音でよく耳にするが、今冬は字として書かれはするものの「こんとう」という発音は滅多に聞かれない。私は強いて発音するなら「このふゆ」のような訳語を使うことが多い。同様に残少も「のこりすくな」なのか「ざんしょう」なのかはっきり決められるものではないと思います。

映画なので、21世紀の日本語が混入した結果がこの残少であると考えると、これは「ざんしょう」というナ形容詞(形容動詞)の語幹であるともいえます。よくチケットの販売状況やサービスの空き状況について、残有、残少などといいます。それぞれ「ざんあり」と「ざんしょう」と発音されます。これらの発音を聞いたことがなくても、「在庫*残少と*なっており、まだ購入できる」(PHILE WEB編集部 2022年4月3日)のように「ざんしょう」以外の発音が不可能な用例があることは検証が可能です。


----------



## gengo

Flaminius said:


> I must iterate that 引返す was also possible in the time depicted in the movie.  Again, I don't know what motivated practice of mixing katakana with kanji, but this was possible way before the WWII *era*.



I wasn't saying that 引返す was not possible before WWII.  I was simply pointing out that 引返ス was very common up to around that time, but has since fallen out of common use.


----------



## Flaminius

gengo said:


> I was simply pointing out that 引返ス was very common up to around that time, but has since fallen out of common use.


It's my fault that I read the wrong implication in your "In the WWII era".  I don't know why I did.

Anyway, mixing katakana with kanji was a very official style only supplanted by hiragana-mixing in the Post-WWII language reforms.  A gradual switch can be seen in the Official Gazette starting from the issue of 1946-05-06.


----------



## gengo

Flaminius said:


> A gradual switch can be seen in the Official Gazette starting from the issue of 1946-05-06.



Very interesting.  I wonder if the use of hiragana with kanji seemed strange to people back then.


----------



## Flaminius

Hard to tell.  As I wrote above children in the Pre-1945 Japan learnt katakana first*.  Katakana-Kanji mix was probably the only means of instruction (outside the calligraphic course) in the elementary school, which the only compulsory education level back then.  E.g., this arithmetic textbook was the second and last volume for 6th Grade (文部省編『初等科算数』第8巻 東京、東京書籍、1943年。 a PDF link to be found in the page).

But this does not mean hiragana was foreign to the hoi polloi.  E.g., 東京朝日新聞 (1939年6月3日第9面), JPG accessed from here.

*The famous ハナハトマメマス textbook of Japanese (文部省 1918) is found in the NDL Digital Library.


----------



## Joschl

Flaminius said:


> よくチケットの販売状況やサービスの空き状況について、残有、残少などといいます。それぞれ「ざんあり」と「ざんしょう」と発音されます。これらの発音を聞いたことがなくても、「在庫*残少と*なっており、まだ購入できる」(PHILE WEB編集部 2022年4月3日)のように「ざんしょう」以外の発音が不可能な用例があることは検証が可能です。


存じませんでした。勉強になりました。


----------

