Shiritori
Encyclopedia
Shiritori is a Japanese
word game
in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana
of the previous word. No distinction is made between hiragana
, katakana
and kanji
. "Shiritori" literally means "taking the buttocks" or "taking the end".
Example: sakura
(さくら) → rajio
(ラジオ) → onigiri
(おにぎり) → risu (りす) → sumo
u (すもう) → udon
(うどん)
The player who used the word udon lost this game.
There are various optional and advanced rules, which must be agreed on before the game begins.
.
There is a Russian wordgame similar to shiritori known as "Igra v goroda" ("Игра в города" -- A game of cities). Players are required to say a name of a city or town that ends with the final letter of the previous word.
There is also a similar South Slavic
game called Kalodont, in which players continue the chain by beginning with last two letters of the previous word.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
word game
Word game
Word games and puzzles are spoken or board games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment, but have been found to serve an educational purpose as well...
in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
of the previous word. No distinction is made between hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
, katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
and kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
. "Shiritori" literally means "taking the buttocks" or "taking the end".
Basic rules
- Two or more people take turns to play.
- Only nounNounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s are permitted. - A player who plays a word ending in the moraMora (linguistics)Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...
N (ん) loses the game, as no Japanese word begins with that character. - Words may not be repeated.
- Phrases connected by no (の) are permitted, but only in those cases where the phrase is sufficiently fossilized to be considered a "word".
Example: sakura
Sakura
A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese . Many of the varieties that have been cultivated for ornamental use do not produce fruit...
(さくら) → rajio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
(ラジオ) → onigiri
Onigiri
, also known as or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori . Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume , salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative...
(おにぎり) → risu (りす) → sumo
Sumo
is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...
u (すもう) → udon
Udon
is a type of thick wheat-flour noodle of Japanese cuisine.Udon is usually served hot as noodle soup in its simplest form as kake udon, in a mildly flavoured broth called kakejiru which is made of dashi, soy sauce , and mirin. It is usually topped with thinly chopped scallions...
(うどん)
The player who used the word udon lost this game.
There are various optional and advanced rules, which must be agreed on before the game begins.
Optional rules
- DakutenDakuten, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...
and handakuten may be ignored. Thus suupu (スープ) may be followed by furo (ふろ). - A long vowel may either be ignored or considered as a vowel. Mikisaa (ミキサー/みきさあ) can be followed by either sakura (さくら) or aki (あき).
- Common pronouns and place names may be permitted. Example: Edo jou (えどじょう) lit. Edo castleEdo Castle, also known as , is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is located in Chiyoda in Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also...
is safe. - Two words spelled with the same kana but different kanji may be permitted. For example, Su (す) can either be spelled as "巣" (lit. a birdnest) or "酢" (lit. vinegar).
Advanced rules
- Words are limited to a certain genre.
- Instead of using only the last kana, the final two kana must be used again. In this case, only the first kana may not be N.
- The length of a word must be three or more syllables.
- Only words beginning and ending in dakuten and handakuten may be used.
English shiritori
A Shiritori game using only English words was invented to help one learn English. Most rules are the same, yet there are several original and optional rules that are used.- For students of English, any words including nouns, verbs, and adjectives can be used.
- Players cannot use different tenses of previously used verbs, unless they have nonstandard conjugation. For example, a player may use "be," "was," and "is," but not both "kick" and "kicked."
- When a word ends in a vowel, like "life," one may use the preceding consonant instead.
Similar games
In English, the most similar game is Word chainWord chain
Word chain is an American game also known as Grab on Behind, Last and First, and Alpha and Omega, is a word game in which players come up with words that begin with the letter or letters that the previous word ended with. A category of words is usually chosen, there is a time limit such as five...
.
There is a Russian wordgame similar to shiritori known as "Igra v goroda" ("Игра в города" -- A game of cities). Players are required to say a name of a city or town that ends with the final letter of the previous word.
There is also a similar South Slavic
South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages comprise one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches by a belt of German, Hungarian and Romanian speakers...
game called Kalodont, in which players continue the chain by beginning with last two letters of the previous word.