![\"Hedgehog](\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/harinezumi.jpg\")
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There’s a Japanese word that means ‘needle mouse’ when literally translated. What kind of animal do you think it is?<\/p>\n
It is in fact a hedgehog. It is written \u91dd\u9f20 and pronounced harinezumi<\/em>: \u91dd (hari) means needle, pin, hook, stinger; thorn, hand (of clock), pointer or staple. \u9f20 (nezumi, nezu, shi, sho) means rat, mouse or dark gray. Harinezumi can also be written \u91dd\u306d\u305a\u307f, \u875f or \u30cf\u30ea\u30cd\u30ba\u30df. <\/p>\n In Mandarin Chinese the character \u875f (w\u00e8i) means hedgehog, and also vulgar, wanton, low, many, varied or porcupine. The simplified version is \u732c. Another Chinese word for hedgehog is \u523a\u732c [\u523a\u875f] (c\u00ec\u200bwei) – \u523a (c\u00ec\u200b) = stab, prick, irritate or prod. <\/p>\n The word \u91dd\u9f20 is not used in Chinese, as far as I know, and appears to be a Japanese coinage.<\/p>\n I was inspired to write this post after reading about the needle mouse \/ hedgehog in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street<\/em><\/a> by Natasha Pulley, which I finished yesterday. It’s an interesting book that I enjoyed very much, and that includes references to Japanese language and culture, and elements of history, fantasy, sci-fi and magical realism, and also a clockwork octopus, and other clockwork creatures.<\/p>\n The Japanese for clockwork octopus is \u305c\u3093\u307e\u3044\u4ed5\u639b\u3051\u306e\u86f8 (zenmaijikake no tako) or \u6642\u8a08\u4ed5\u639b\u3051\u306e\u86f8 (tokeijikake no tako). In Chinese it’s \u53d1\u6761\u7ae0\u9c7c [\u767c\u689d\u7ae0\u9b5a] (f\u0101ti\u00e1o zh\u0101ngy\u00fa).<\/p>\n Sources: Jisho<\/a>, MDBG Chinese dictionary<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n This is a tune I wrote called “The Clockwork Octopus” – the title came first, then I wrote the tune:<\/p>\n