mahjong

[Mark Spahn]

I am in the midst of translating an enormous
patent (looks like it will be about 40,000 English
words long) about a pachinko machine that is
so smart that it also plays mahjong. (Can
Skynet be far behind?) What is a good
translation for the mahjong term,
in katakana, "riichi"? An online search says
that the English-language term is "ready hand",
and that the katakana term "riichi" come from
Chinese. So tentatively I am translating
"riichi" as "ready hand [mahjong term 'leechi']".
Good idea? Bad idea?

In reading up on mahjong, I learn that in America
it is a game of yesteryear, having been a fad of
the 1920's, and especially popular among Jewish
ladies of a certain age. It is played with tiles,
making it superficially resemble dominoes, but
the game itself is similar to the card game rummy
(another game of yesteryear, which I haven't
thought of even once, much less played,
since before I was a teenager.)

So what is the status of mahjong in Japan today?
Is it as popular in Japan, and among a similar
demographic, as is Texas Hold 'Em poker in
America? Does a passerby still hear the cry of
"Riichi!" in certain gaming quarters?
-- Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY)

P.S. If you're feeling in a gambling mood,
try dialing 1-866-559-0829. Maybe you'll
be lucky enough -- or psychic enough --
to guess the winning six-digit number.

[Brian Watson]

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Mark Spahn <mark...@verizon.net> wrote:

An online search says that the English-language term is "ready hand", and that the katakana term "riichi" come from Chinese.

As someone who regularly plays mahjong with Canadians (some of whom are of Chinese descent and use Chinese terms while playing), I can tell you I have never heard anything remotely close to leechi in use. The goal in mahjong is usually not to signal that you're about to have mahjong, so players rarely indicate that they were close until after someone else declares mahjong, and we all show our hands.

Brian Watson
+1.604.395.4202 (home office), +1.425.246.7888 (cell), brian-momotaro (skype)

[Alan Siegrist]

I have played a fair amount of Mahjong in Japan, and in my understanding, the richi rule is almost unheard of outside of Japan. It is not used in either the Chinese or American versions of the game, so there is probably no common English equivalent of the term. I would thus probably use the Romanized spelling "richi" (with a macron and italicized if desired), and add an explanation on first use if needed.

Regards,

Alan Siegrist
Carmel, CA, USA

---

From: Mark Spahn
Sent: ‎3/‎28/‎2014 12:42 PM
To: hon...@googlegroups.com
Subject: mahjong

I am in the midst of translating an enormous
patent (looks like it will be about 40,000 English
words long) about a pachinko machine that is
so smart that it also plays mahjong.  (Can
Skynet be far behind?)  What is a good
translation for the mahjong term,

in katakana, "riichi"?  An online search says

that the English-language term is "ready hand",
and that the katakana term "riichi" come from

Chinese.  So tentatively I am translating

"riichi" as "ready hand [mahjong term 'leechi']".
Good idea?  Bad idea?

In reading up on mahjong, I learn that in America
it is a game of yesteryear, having been a fad of
the 1920's, and especially popular among Jewish
ladies of a certain age.  It is played with tiles,
making it superficially resemble dominoes, but
the game itself is similar to the card game rummy
(another game of yesteryear, which I haven't
thought of even once, much less played,
since before I was a teenager.)

So what is the status of mahjong in Japan today?
Is it as popular in Japan, and among a similar
demographic, as is Texas Hold 'Em poker in
America?  Does a passerby still hear the cry of
"Riichi!" in certain gaming quarters?
-- Mark Spahn  (West Seneca, NY)

P.S.  If you're feeling in a gambling mood,
try dialing 1-866-559-0829.  Maybe you'll
be lucky enough -- or psychic enough --
to guess the winning six-digit number.

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[Eleanor Goldsmith, Kinsho Language Services]

Alan Siegrist wrote:
> I have played a fair amount of Mahjong in Japan, and in my understanding, the richi rule is almost unheard of outside of Japan. It is not used in either the Chinese or American versions of the game, so there is probably no common English equivalent of the term. I would thus probably use the Romanized spelling "richi" (with a macron and italicized if desired), and add an explanation on first use if needed.

I'd always associated it with bingo/lotto (which I used to play in English on elementary school visits in my CIR days) and had assumed that リーチ was derived from English, to mean something like "victory is within reach". However, the entry for リーチ on WWWJDIC tells me that it's also written 立直 and derived from the Chinese word pronounced "lizhi".

 

The Japanese Wikipedia article on リーチ links to a Chinese one, which mentions 日本麻雀, which in turn links to an English one entitled Japanese Mahjong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Mahjong). This confirms what Alan wrote about リーチ (romanized as rīchi in the Wikipedia article) being unique to the Japanese version of the game.

 

Apparently, there's also a rule called yakitori. It doesn't appear to mean that the loser buys everyone else yakitori, though.

 

And now, back to the end-of-fiscal-year rush....

 

 

 

 

Eleanor Goldsmith

Auckland, NZ

 

 

 

[Alan Siegrist]

Just for additional corroboration, see the following Wikipedia article on “Japanese Mahjong” (which says the game is also known as Rīchi Mahjong, emphasizing the importance or uniqueness of the rīchi rule), where there is ample explanation in English of the rīchi and other rules specific to the modern Japanese version of Mahjong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Mahjong

 

As an aside, the kanji for rīchi is said to be立直, and this would be lìzhí if written in modern Chinese Pinyin. I don’t know the source of the term. The rule and term could have been from an older Chinese version of the game, or it may have been simply invented in Japan so立直 might be a sort of ‘faux Chinese’ term invented by Japanese Mahjong players.

[Alan Siegrist]

Mark Spahn wrote:

> I am in the midst of translating an enormous patent (looks like
> it will be about 40,000 English words long) about a pachinko
> machine that is so smart that it also plays mahjong. (Can
> Skynet be far behind?) What is a good translation for the
> mahjong term, in katakana, "riichi"?

As I was muddling about in Japanese Wikipedia trying to determine the origin
of rīchi, I found some rather interesting information indicating that rī
chi in pachinko or pachislo machines is derived from, but not the same as
the Mahjong term rīchi. It is also used in Bingo, as mentioned by Eleanor.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AB%8B%E7%9B%B4#.E8.BB.A2.E7.94.A8
転用

「立直」の語は以下に転用されている。
パチンコで、図柄の変動によって大当たりを期待させるアクションを「リーチ」と呼
ぶ。リーチ (パチンコ)を参照。
パチスロでは、ボーナスが成立した時のみ特別な制御で出現する出目を、リーチ目と
いう。
ビンゴゲームで、ある1つのマスに印がつけば1列に印がそろうようになる状態を「リ
ーチ」と呼ぶ。リーチ (ゲーム)を参照。
その他「落第にリーチがかかった」などと、ある状態が達成される寸前であることを
「リーチ」と呼ぶ。
いずれも普通カタカナで書かれる。

There is even a special article in J Wikipedia describing the use of rīchi
in Pachinko machines, so this might be even more important in this context
than the Mahjong term:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%81_(%E3%83%91%E3%83%81
%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B3)

[Mark Spahn]

I should've thought of this before, but

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko 

has a lot of information about what to call

various pachinko terms in English.

==QUOTE==

When shot, the balls drop through an array of pins; some of them will fall into the center gate and start up the slot machine in the center screen. Every ball that goes into the center gate results in one spin of the slot machine ...

If the first 2 numbers or letters of the spin match up, the digital program will display many animations before the third reel stops spinning, to give the player added excitement. This is called a reach (or reachi) and sometimes longer animations are played called super reaches.

Most [p]achinko machines employ thekakuhen system, where some percentage of the possible jackpots on the digital slot machine result in the odds of hitting the next jackpot multiplying by a large amount ... [This "kakuhen" seems to be an abberviation for "kakuritsu henkou", a change in the probability (of winning).]

==UNQUOTE==

This article also mentions "start pocket", which seems to be a translation for "shidou-guchi" <hajimeru><ugoku><kuchi>, and "win pocket" (nyuushou-guchi?).

 

This article mentions "a reach (or reachi)" with no reference to mahjong, so maybe I was just jumping to conclusions thinking that the katakana word "riichi" was a mahjong term adapted to pachinko machines.  This "riichi" may have come from the English word "reach", having nothing to do with mahjong at all(!).  I don't see the metaphorical connection between the meaning of "reach" and the meaning of "riichi".  Perhaps it means that when two out of three slot-machine pictures (zugara) match, it's only a short "reach" till you get all three pictures alike, which produces a big win (oo-atari).

 

At times like these, one regrets the gaps in one's education. 

I should have signed up for Pachinko 101 in the

Faculty of Recreation at Asobi Daigaku.

[Zachary Soter]

Hello all,

I agree with Alan about simply translating it as "richi". When I visit family in China (my wife is Chinese) and we play mahjong there is no such term,. In fact, the term 立直 is not even recognizable as such in Chinese. It is only applicable in Japanese mahjong. Lastly, the rules and jargon differ greatly depending on the region in China. Where I have played in China the equivalent term in Chinese is 报停.

Hope this helps,

Good luck and best regards,

Zachary Soter

[Mark Spahn]

I am sorry to have led you all (and myself)

on a wildfowl chase into the world of mahjong.

 

In a very long patent for a pachinko machine,

the word リーチ came up.  I thought,

"Ah, I know that!  It's a word that I once

overheard mahjong players using." 

Indeed, this is the only mahjong term that

I do know.  So I got it in my mind that I was

dealing with a pachinko machine that also plays

mahjong.  Not until I reached (ha!) paragraph

[0184] of this [0185]-paragraph patent did

the word "mahjong" come up, in a remark

that this wonderful patent can also be applied

to slot machines and machines for other games

like "arepachi" and mahjong. 

 

So this word リーチ does not come from

日本麻雀 or from the Chinese term

 立直 "lizhi", but from the English word "reach".

 

In the katakana term "arepachi", the "pachi"

part must be short for "pachinko", and the

"are" part hints at "rough pachinko",

a variation on pachinko that combines

sedentary gaming with athleticism, somewhat like

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing .

 

-- Mark Spahn  (West Seneca, NY),

experiencing a sudden appetite for

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3fwUSUjLbCE/TgmbVKkXGMI/AAAAAAAABto/quQr_0iMCbA/s1600/Lychee-fruit.jpg 

[JimBreen]

On Saturday, 29 March 2014 07:57:28 UTC+11, Alan Siegrist wrote:

As an aside, the kanji for rīchi is said to be立直, and this would be lìzhí if written in modern Chinese Pinyin. I don’t know the source of the term. The rule and term could have been from an older Chinese version of the game, or it may have been simply invented in Japan so立直 might be a sort of ‘faux Chinese’ term invented by Japanese Mahjong players.

The 国語s all say it's from Chinese. E.g. 広辞苑 has:
リーチ【立直】
(中国語) マージャンで、聴牌(テンパイ)を宣言すること。上がった場合、得点が倍
  になる。

大辞林 says much the same.

Jim

[JimBreen]

On Saturday, 29 March 2014 23:29:46 UTC+11, Mark Spahn wrote:

 

In the katakana term "arepachi", the "pachi"

part must be short for "pachinko", and the

"are" part hints at "rough pachinko",

a variation on pachinko that combines

sedentary gaming with athleticism, somewhat like

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing .

アレパチ is formed from アレンジボール + パチンコ,
See http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AC%E3%83%91%E3%83%81
for quotes from the パチンコ・パチスロ用語辞典

Jim

[Francesco Cappello]

I am not an experienced translator so I feel a little uncomfortable in sending a reply here, however I have spent a few years literally obsessed with mahjong, and I have learnt that Japanese rules are appreciated outside of Japan too, and there are a few of top notch western players with high profile careers in Japan. Some of them write on this website: http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/ the name alone, should be a fairly good indication of the fact that "reach" seems to be a well accepted term for the リーチ rule.

Francesco Cappello (Verona, Italy)

2014/03/28 21:13 "Alan Siegrist" <alanfs...@comcast.net>: