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[Amabella Batton]

2009/2/11 10:02 "teka" is short for "te iu ka," or "to iu ka," so it's *very* informal way to say "in other words," but more in the sense of "by the way," "changing the subject." "Chinami ni" is "speaking of that subject," right? This one is more "changing the subject."

In colloquial speech among young people (it shows I'm not one of them lol) I've observed too that they use it very often simply when they come up with something completely different from what they were talking about - even without much meaning, only like "you know, (I've got an idea)" type of thing.by AKrate this post as useful

"I mean,"2009/2/11 11:59 It's the same as "I mean."

Not the one as in "I mean to do this as a favor." but more as in "I mean, what's the big deal?" in which "I mean" doesn't really mean anything.

For example, the sentence

'Ăꏏɗ[HHsfsimply means, "I mean, let's go out for dinner together." Maybe you two weren't doing or saying anything before this quote, but often people, in particular young people around the world, like to start a sentence with a meaningless "I mean."

I mean, you know what I'm sayin'?by Uco (guest)rate this post as useful

oh ok2009/2/12 02:38 Ak

So you're saying that teka is in fact much closer to 'tokorode' than to 'chinamini'. Hm, I see. I was actually under the impression that teka was used as chinamini, and there's a reason for that.

You see, the funny thing is, when I doubele checked my friends' old messages, they used both teka and tokorode in the same sentence! So it would be 'teka this, and tokorode that' Intuitively, I figured that teka must be something they used when still talking about a new subject within the same subject (while tokorode is bringing up a completely new subject). Especially with 'to iuka' meaning 'in other words'.

Thanks for your explanation too, Uco. About that sentence I used, the 'teka issho ni yuuushoku tabe ikou ze', I distinctly remember that I was actually talking to my friend. We were talking about meeting up pretty soon, and then I got that reply. So again, I thought it must have been like chinamini.

Sorry if I sound so confusing=) Maybe young Japanese people (as in every country in the world) don't always use their own language correctly.

by D (guest)rate this post as useful

...2009/2/12 08:27 D,

I agree that if you take the origin of the word, it SHOULD be used to mean "in other words," more like "chinamini." But if you think about how it's used, it's not, and it is used in the sense of "by the way," completely changing the subject. ANd I agree that it's used like "I mean..."

I've read a linguist's essay on how this was being used, and that person wrote that this "teka" is a way to not-too-openly bring in a completely different subject lol. If you say "tokorode," it's quite obvious you are changing the subject completely, right? But by saying "...teka," you start off sounding as if you are going to say something related, or to rephrase things, so no offense to everyone around, but in fact going by the substance of the sentence that follows, you are changing the subject completely. :)

There are some word usages that really puzzle me at times, but that's part of life lol.by AKrate this post as useful

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