Reinen?

Gregory S. Johnson gsjohnson at otsuma.ac.jp
Mon Mar 12 03:24:40 EDT 2007


I'm completely ignorant of the film Nippon reinen or if you prefer Nippon/Ni
hon zero nen, but the Japanese title of the film Osama (directed by Siddiq B
armak) アフガン零年 is Afugan reinen, isn't it? The director's age and the t
heme of the film might also provide clues to a euphonic reading. My son's pr
imary school math teacher makes them read 零 as rei, because he says zero is
 English.  Of course rei is ostensibly an approximation of the Chinese ling,
 therefore not necessarily more Japanese than zero. Perhaps that's why he's 
not teaching kokugo?

Greg Johnson



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