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Re: Cardinals and ordinals

From:Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Date:Sunday, September 14, 2003, 2:46
Garth Wallace wrote:
> Isn't the count suffix "-ban" always required for ordinals?
Not always. For example, "chapter two" is _dainika_, World War One and World War Two are, respectively, _daiichiji sekai taisen_ and _dainiji sekai taisen_, literally "number-one-order world big-war" and "number-two-order world big-war", "third party" (in the sense of an individual) is _daisansha_, there's also an adverb _daiichi ni_ "first, first of all, above all else", e.g., _Mazu daiichi ni kenkou ni ki o tsukenakereba narimasen_ "One should take care of one's health *above all else*" The -ji in the WW1 and WW2 words can apparently be used without any other affixes, too, my dictionary gives an example "niji shiken", "the second examination"
> Also, does "dai-" mean "great" here?
No, different kanji. -- "There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd, you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." - overheard ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

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Garth Wallace <gwalla@...>