"yourfriend" > wrote in message

> On Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:08:41 GMT, "James Silverton"
> > wrote:
>
>> This is not to argue with others but I became interested enough to
>> read up on hashi in David Lowry's book, "The Connoisseur's Guide to
>> Sushi". It's an interesting "quality" paperback and he has 8 pages
>> on "ohashi" which, he says is invariant for Japanese chopsticks. I
>> have been told otherwise but anyway!
>>
> James, in my limited knowledge of Nihongo prefixing the
> (particle?)'o' to a word makes it "more polite". I believe the
> stricter Romanji rendering would be 'o-hashi'. An example: 'chin
> chin' means penis but it is politely spoken as 'o chin chin'. could
> be wrong.

That's my impression too tho' an honest assessment would be that I speak
*no* Japanese. I thought "o" as a prefix indicated affection or respect.
That means, AFAIK, both hashi and o-hashi should exist, slightly
contradicting Lowry.

--
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland