# べべ, いんでこう



## cevita

Hi!

I was hoping someone here could help me with my questions 

I have been listening to an enka song, and have two questions related to some of the words in the song:
"べべ" and "いんでこう". I can't seem to find the words in a dictionary, so they might be some kind of dialect?

The song is about a mother and her child, her child waves her hand and says "indekou, indekou". The mother also describes what her child is wearing, a red "bebe":

いいやほしやと　コイさん五つ
赤いべべきてころげてないた

Does anyone know?


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## Wishfull

Hi.
べべ＝baby talk of "clothes" .

I don't know いんでこう.
I imagine it is a dialect of いいんだよ. I'm not sure.


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## Ocham

いんでこう（わい） is a dialect in the northwestern part of Shikoku, meaning "(I'm) going back."


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## Flaminius

A quick Internet search reveals that いんでこうわい is "Good bye" in Ehime dialect.  It is literally 帰ってきます ("I shall come back") but does not seem to be used in this sense.

In the _enka_, I think the mother is leaving her child for whatever the reason and the child screams いんでこう.  As she describes her child "cried rolling on the ground" (ころげてないた), he was very unhappy to have her leave.  I think いんでこう is the imperative "Come back" (帰ってこい).


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## cevita

So that is what that means.
I didnt think of googling it, i should do that next time 

Thank you for your help


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## Wishfull

Ocham said:


> いんでこう（わい） is a dialect in the northwestern part of Shikoku, meaning "(I'm) going back."


 
Hi.
It is interesting!
I lived in Ehime over 20 years, but I never encountered that expression.
I would like to ask;"Really?".

edit;#8 posts of Flam's gave me an answer.
Ehime prefecture is devided into three areas. 
It's interesting enough to know, that there are district dialect differences within one prefecture.


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## toccillo

I myself use the verb 'いぬ(去ぬ), _te-form:いんで_', and I'm not sure the word can mean 'to come back'; it usually means 'to go back' or 'to leave'.

So, my guess is: The child is waving good-bye.


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## Flaminius

Hi, *toccillo*.

去ぬ in the standard Japanese (it may not be part of the active vocabulary but still many people understand this word) is to leave the place where the interlocutors take their point of view.  I am wondering if this is the sense you understand the verb.  The destination of the movement is not specific.  The important thing is that you leave here and the speaker does not care where you go.  The imperative 去ね is, therefore, "Buzz off" (or more becoming to the archaic taste "Be off").

The word seems to have a different meaning in Ehime dialect.  This is the explanation on いんでこう I have based my comments off on:


> 「去んで来る」こと。ワイは終助詞。「帰ります」の別れのことば。「きょうのところは、ひとまず帰りますが、また来ます」の意。


If 去ぬ in Ehime dialect is close to 帰る in the standard language, it means to leave the place where one is currently located and go to the place where one belongs or one should really be.  Apparently the mother in the song is leaving her five-year-old child.  If he thinks his mummy should be with him —but away from where she should be—, he would call her back, "帰ってこい (here, come back to me)."  I analyze こう as the Ehime volitional form of 来る; that is, on par with 来よう.  In the standard language, the subject of this form changes the meaning.  If the first person is the subject, it expresses one's intention ("I shall" or "Let's" in soliloquy).  If the second person is the subject, it is jussive or hortative (食べようよ, 買おうよ etc.).

Alternatively, いんでこう may be an imperative; similar to *帰って来よ (_kaettekoyo_; I don't think this form has ever existed).

Unless the Ehime grammar is very different from that of the standard Japanese, I still think いんでこう by the child is "Mummy, come back to me!"


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## toccillo

Hi, Flaminius

You know, the phrase "帰ってこい" can be interpreted two ways.
1. Come back to me.
2. You can go to the place where you belong, for now. ( And come back to me later.)

As for "去んで来い",
It means #2. I think you can agree on this.
And I don't think you can interpret it as #1, because 'いぬ' doesn't mean 'come back'.

This is my rationale, and of course, I may be wrong.


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## Wishfull

Hi.
I didn't know いんでこう, and I probably will never use the phrase whole of my life.

By the way, is there any district difference about "べべ”？
I think べべ　is a baby talk of "clothes". 
Is it common to whole nation?

I think when I talk to a baby, I use おべべ　rather than べべ.
○○ちゃん、おべべを　きまちょうね。


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## Flaminius

Hello again, *toccillo*.



toccillo said:


> You know, the phrase "帰ってこい" can be interpreted two ways.
> 1. Come back to me.
> 2. You can go to the place where you belong, for now. ( And come back to me later.)


帰ってこい means the two things in two different situations.  Sentence 1 entails that the speaker is in the place where the listener belongs and the listener is away from it.  Sentence 2 entails both the speaker and the listener are away from the latter's place of origin.  For both cases the basic meaning of 帰る is to return to the place of origin (or of belonging).



> As for "去んで来い",
> It means #2. I think you can agree on this.
> And I don't think you can interpret it as #1, because 'いぬ' doesn't mean 'come back'.


You are assuming that 去ぬ in Ehime dialect is like 帰る in the standard language but the former cannot be used when the speaker is in the listener's  place of origin/belonging.  Why the restriction?  Any sources?


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## azmi

Hi

My English skill is poor.
an explanation in Japanese.
私の英語の能力が少ないので日本語での説明になりますが
よろしくお願いします



cevita said:


> Hi!
> いいやほしやと　コイさん五つ
> 赤いべべきてころげてないた
> Does anyone know?



たぶん、吉永小百合(yoshinaga sayuri)さんの【天満橋(tenmabashi)から】（昭和４０年（１９６５）の唄の歌詞だと思います
ですが歌詞カードが見つからないので質問の答えが正しいかどうかわかりません

"いんでこう"は、"いんでこー"　帰ろう(kaerou)の意味かもしれません

天満橋は大阪にある橋の名前です　地名にもなっています


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## Flaminius

*azmi*さん、貴重なヒントをありがとうございました。「天満橋から」の歌詞を調べました。わたしは大変な思い違いをしておりました。

Sorry for making all the confusion.  I checked the lyrics that *azmi* suggested and found out the whole story.  The boy, Koi, threw his doll from the Temma Bridge into the river.  The nanny (not the mother) thought he'd cry but the boy waved at the doll and said; "Indekō, indekō."



> 泣くかと思ったら手をふって　いんでこう　いんでこう


The story takes place in Osaka.  The lyrics include other features of Osaka dialect, so いんでこう should be interpreted as such.
いんでこう consists of the _te_-form of いぬ (or whatever the basic form of this verb in the Osaka dialect) and the imperative form of くる (the same reservation applies ).

I think いぬ is just "to go" without any esoteric meaning I mistakenly argued in other posts.  いんでこう is, therefore, akin to いってこい and means いってらっしゃい in the standard language.  One way to translate this to English is; "Good luck with your journey."

The "cried rolling on the ground" bit belongs to the second stanza.  This is again nothing to do with having to put up with his mother leaving him.  I am so sorry.


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## azmi

Flaminiusさん　フォローありがとうございます
Thank you for your comment.

私も「天満橋から」の歌の映像をyoutubeで見ることができました
I got "Tenma bashi kara" in youtube.

１つ大阪弁（大阪の方言）を説明します
I explain osaka  dialect.

こいさん＝末娘(すえむすめ)youngest daughter　の代名詞です
コイを男の子の名前で説明されていますが、女の子になります

「いんで」は、「帰って」come back
「こう」は、よくわかりませんが、お願いするような気持ちがあると思います

５歳の女の子が橋の上から川の中に人形を投げ入れて
手を振って言っている言葉が「いんでこう」なので、
「いんでこう」は、人形に対して「さようなら」の意味もあると思いますが、
人形にあなたの家に「帰ってください」please come homeと言う意味で
言っているように思えます
雛流し（ひなながし）、流し雛（ながしびな）の光景が目に浮かびます


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## Flaminius

> こいさん＝末娘(すえむすめ)youngest daughter　の代名詞です


ありがとうございます。勉強になりました。


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