"Lemon" or "Remon"😅 檸檬の「レ」は「L」?「R」?😅

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I didn't know that lemons fruit in winter. 

Lemon tree レモン


Lemon is used in the Japanese version of the "Do-Re-Me" song, i.e., a show tune from the very famous musical "The Sound of Music," to allude one of the solfege syllables. You may wonder which one and how. I will explain, but first, let me show you the relevant parts of the original Do-Re-Me lyrics.
  • Do => doe, a deer, a female deer
  • Re => ray, a drop of golden sun 
  • Mi  => me, a name I call myself 
  • Fa  => far, a long long way to run
  • Sol => sew, the verb for a needle pulling thread
  • La  => la, a note to follow so
  • Ti  => tea, a drink with jam and bread

And here is the Japanese version. The Japanese version doesn't use homophones but words which begin or contain each of the syllables as follows:

  • Do  => donut
  • Re  => lemon 
  • Mi  => minna (i.e., everyone) 
  • Fa  => fight
  • Sol => sora (i.e., sky)
  • La  => lappa (i.e., trumpet)     
  • Ti   => shiawase (i.e., happiness)

See? The syllable "Re" is represented by "lemon" in the Japanese song. This happens because Japanese doesn't differentiate between "r" and "l" and therefore "r" is sometimes pronounced as "l" like following:

  rainbow  =>      lainbow
  Rambo    =>      Lambo-
  ring        =>      ling

Another thing which you may also wonder is why "shiawase," i.e., a word starting with "s" can allude "Ti." This is because Japanese pronounces the solfege syllables as: Do, Le, Mi, Fa, So, La, S(h)i.... 

In addition, Japanese doesn't differentiate between "s" and "sh," either. This makes me think that someday I want to tell a dog trained in English to "sit" to check if my pronunciation is correct....😅

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近所の檸檬です。生ってるのを見たのは初めて。冬空に映える黄色がとてもきれいでした。

檸檬でいつも思い出すのは「ドレミの歌」です。「レはレモンのレ~♬」ですよね。でも「レ」って「ray」、つまり「r(アール)」で、「lemon」の「l(エル)」ではないんです。

もう一つ言うと、ドレミの歌って英語だと「ドレミファソラティ」なんですよね。「シは幸せよ~♬」じゃない。。。 「ティー!ティティ!ティーティーティティ!」でしょうか😅

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