Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (August 30, 2023)

2 comments

1. Currently 4 days into studying Japanese, and decided to try my hand at reading some manga, just for practice in reading kana (and maybe picking up some kanji on the way).

   I started 光が死んだ夏, mostly because I’m already a fan and there seems to be furigana for everything. However something I quickly realized is that I was reading a lot of what I thought was slang, but I later realized was just dialect stuff, which makes sense provided the setting is in the countryside.

   Is it a bad idea to read content with dialects as a part of my practice?

2. I’ve got kind of a “WHY?!“ question.

   I’m working my way through the first paragraph of Holes and the last sentence is カラッカラに干からびている。

   I understand it’s essentially saying “it’s bone dry”, “it’s completely dried up”, etc. I’m just completely lost in what is actually happening with the sentence.

   カラッカラ = からから = parched/dried up?
   干 = dry, parch.
   からびて = to dry up, to shrivel.
   いる = to be/exist.
   Altogether 干からびている = to dry up completely?

   So the sentence is essentially just the repetition of the same concept with a particle thrown between??? I’m just completely baffled and don’t understand why?

   For context if needed, the sentence is prefaced by: キャンプ・グリーンレイクに湖レイクはない。昔はすごく大きい湖があった。テキサス州でいちばん大きい湖だ。百年以上も前のことで、いまはなんにもない。**カラッカラに干ひからびている。**