bokura or bokutachi?

[jasonrey]

i'm not trying to say that its her fault or her mistake, but just curious instead.

is 僕達 read as bokutachi or bokura? as i remember what i've learn from my japanese class, its bokutachi. i only learn a little basic on writing and reading though. sorry for my noobness. in the booklet scans, credits to 奶油布丁@www.ayuchina.com anyway, the song part of Me, its written as 僕達 while she sings bokura instead. ??

just wondering.

here is the scan part anyway.

[emi♡]

I swear it's "bokutachi" because I, well, I can usually follow the lyrics at the bottom while they are singing, but, I'm far far far from skilled in Japanese.

But I thought it was bokutachi too, because for bokura they always had the hiragana after "boku" so...yeah, thats how I remember things

Hiru says that it says bokutachi too, and he can actually read so...maybe...she just...forgot? I don't know. Kind of changes the meaning of the sentence a bit doesn't it?

With lyrics and prose, writers can take liberties with how to pronounce words. Although those characters are usually read as "bokutachi," Ayu has decided to replace the reading with "bokura" (which means the same thing). She does the same thing in other songs (evolution).

Another example of Ayu replacing readings is in 'evolution.' In the line with the characters for "chikyuu" she replaces the reading with "hoshi." Although the meanings are slightly different, a planet is a star so it fits in context.

This happens a lot in novels and the changes in reading are usually marked with furigana.

[emi♡]

ahhh I see too, wow, thank you devilayu

yeah that's right, I'm double posting. Hiru wanted to pust his 2c in so here it is:

Yea you're right, bokutachi = 僕達, bokura = 僕ら. I think it's a typo since it would be easy to just mix them up. But sometimes lyrics do weird things. Like you'll often find them using alternate kanji or just some weird kanji use. When I look up bokura with Jim Breen's excellent online dictionary I don't see ra with any kanji at all

No, it isn't a typo. It's just like devilayu said. This is a very common practice in Japanese literature (including poetry and lyrics). It's a way to give a sort of double-meaning or to change the nuance or simply the appearance of a word. It's probably the single most fun thing about writing in Japanese.

[Diana]

Yep.. In japanese you can use kanji/hiragana... for the same word or diferent context. There are few kanjis for one word and diferent meaning, and the same. If you get cause I got a little lost in typing So it isn`t Ayus fault as devilayu said

[JimmyKoria]

I assumed it was done to soften the word. Bokura is really hard sounding and the way I always looked it was she was using a masculine word but making it slightly feminine (since she’s talking about male and females).

[Corybobory]

Originally Posted by evolusean

No, it isn't a typo. It's just like devilayu said. This is a very common practice in Japanese literature (including poetry and lyrics). It's a way to give a sort of double-meaning or to change the nuance or simply the appearance of a word. It's probably the single most fun thing about writing in Japanese.

Wow, that's so interesting

[immel]

Originally Posted by Corybobory

Wow, that's so interesting

You extracted the thoughts out of my head, put them in tough process and extracted the same words I probably would have, too. If there would have been any need for it!

Indeed so .

[jasonrey]

thanks so much guys for clearing it up! hmm.. now i understand it...

again thks!

japanese could be interesting but giving me headache as well. lol! i'm trying hard to cope up with my japanese class now though.

[oro77]

In lyrics, we can go ever further.

In Mr Children song, i think it is CROSSROAD. At the end, we have the kanji :
夢　but it is sang as Dream (ドリーム)
This case is really special, usually it is not sang with an English word but a Japanese word which has a very close meaning but a little bit different.

Just need to know that kanji in lyrics are great !