Re: japanese particles (Was: Chinese writing systems)

>> I'm a non-native, natch, but I almost *never* heard "e" in Japan. For
>> me, "e" implies longer distances and longer times of duration. As
>> Amanda points out, it's fuzzy stuff, but I feel weird saying "ginkoo e
>> itte kimasu" (I'm going to the bank (and'll be back)); I'd be more
>> likely to say "ginkoo ni itte kimasu". The classic example, "gakkoo e
>> ikimasu" (I'm going to school), is, of course, grammatically
>> acceptable *and* interchangeable with "gakkoo ni ikimasu" (which is
>> more within my comfort zone). Since I'm now in Boston, "Tookyoo e
>> ikimasu" is a viable utterance, but when I lived in Iizuka, "Fukuoka e
>> ikimasu" (an hour away) would've sounded affected to me.
>> Kou
...Sorry, I hit the send key by mistake earlier... here is my reply in
full...

While I agree with you about the likelihood of incorporating _ni_ over
_e_, I disagree with you about the comment that _e_ is never heard in
Japan. The particle _e_ is very much alive and put to work in Tokyo.
In fact, I sense that it is the preferred particle in cases where the
other (_ni_) is already functioning in the same utterance for another
meaning.  Bare with me on my examples, as I don't have my walking
dictionary boyfriend at hand so I'm ad-libbing according to my own
years of experience here (although in gaijin-terms)

* Dare ni mo ataerarenai kanjyou wa kare e dake miseta (I showed only
to him the affection that I cannot give to just anyone).

Here's the same example written in a different way (I just asked the
internet cafe Japanese girl to read mine above, she laughed and said it
is grammatically correct but quite difficult - a bit literary - and
offered me the same way to say it but in colloquial term)

* Kare ni dake boku no dare ni mo misenai kanjyou wo ataerareta (I gave
to only him the affection that I cannot show anyone).

In these examples, Kou's theory that _e_ is archaic is justified as you
can see that the internet girl's rendition makes use of two _ni_s.
However, _e_ is possible.

Perhaps another, better, example would clarify.

* Yuumei na sakka ni sakusei sareta e wo, kare no meiru e tensou shimashita.
(I forwarded to his mail the picture made by a famous artist).

...although _ni_ could replace _e_ too...

Well, I can't think of good examples off the top of my head to represent
what I mean to transmit, but I can verify that _e_ should still be
considered a commonly-used particle.  One more (vague) example is that you
would never use _ni_ in the meaning "to/Dear" when addressing a letter
(such as "Dear Kou"), I've *always* seen many Japanese write letters by
_e_ -- i.e., _Kou e_ but not _Kou ni_)

M.E.S.