Talk:Shiritori

Broken Link?
The "online shiritori" link at the bottom of the page seems to go nowhere... JB Gnome (talk) 07:58, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Just Wonderin'
Hey I was just wonderin if shiritori can also be called chiritori because I've heard people calling it that. I'm not sure about it so if anyone knows please help. Thanks. 333cool 00:06, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


 * A "chiritori" (ちり取り) is a "dustpan". (You can find this in many on-line dictionaries.) Punning the two words would not be unexpected.
 * In some dialects (personal observation, but I could probably find references to back me up), the "sa" group and the "ta" group are hard to distinguish, as if (perhaps) they were trying to avoid hissing. But that wasn't as prominent with the "si" mora as with the "sa", "se", and "so" morae. Reiisi (talk) 00:51, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
 * In some dialects (personal observation, but I could probably find references to back me up), the "sa" group and the "ta" group are hard to distinguish, as if (perhaps) they were trying to avoid hissing. But that wasn't as prominent with the "si" mora as with the "sa", "se", and "so" morae. Reiisi (talk) 00:51, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

a citation
It would be nice to include a citation as an example: a song called "lovers playing shiritori" of Pizzicato Five (12th track of the album "This year's girl"). The song consists of a simple drum & base background over which a girl and a man play shiritori. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.24.137.66 (talk • contribs) 14:00, 8 October 2007

observation
In the equivalent English word game, the loser is the one who goes AFTER the person playing the unfollowable word. I guess that's because while X is rare, there is no letter in English that starts NO words. Or maybe the Japanese version is just more cooperative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.24.137.66 (talk) 14:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

China?
In a now-defunct Korean-language-learners' forum I used to frequent, someone mentioned that China had a game similar to shiritori, except, of course, involving hanzi compounds rather than kana.

Has anyone else heard of this? And would it warrant inclusion in this article? Finally if it were to be included, would it count as a variant of shiritori, or as one of the "similar games"? Nagakura shin8 (talk) 10:56, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Unclear rules
When a word ends in a vowel, like "life," one may use the preceding consonant instead.

Do you mean a vowel sound or a letter representing a vowel?

If a vowel sound, then /lʌɪf/ doesn't end in a vowel.

If a letter representing a vowel, why would it be ignored? And is it equally ignored if it's pronounced or not? Could I ignore e in life as well as in recipe? Is y considered a vowel letter so I can ignore it in play?

Does anybody have source for that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.10.23.147 (talk) 15:19, 21 July 2016 (UTC)


 * I’m pretty sure the rule means letters that aren’t pronounced at the end can be ignored, to parallel the rule in the Japanese version. You could follow play with ape, and then follow ape with pair, but try would force a y word, even though it is a vowel there.

There seems to be no source at all for the rules for English Shiritori. And I suspect that they are off. For example, I think the rules about what counts as a repeat apply to all words and different forms. You can’t have both cat and cats, but mouse and mice would be allowed because mice is a non standard plural, and this is a teaching game. And you can’t have both silent and silently because ly is the standard way to make an adverb. But silence would be fine, Speech, speak, and spoken are fine, but speaking would count as a repeat of speak. And proper nouns are still not allowed unless they are commonly seen uncapitalized. For example, aspirin is fine because it has became generic, but Tylenol is not. 73.151.32.230 (talk) 13:17, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

"Taking the Buttocks"
I would suggest putting the translation of the name of the game as "Taking the Buttocks" in a note, leaving "Taking the End" or "Taking the Tail" in the text.

It's perhaps a personal observation, but some segments of both Japanese and English-speaking society find the "buttocks" interpretation amusing, some find it offensive. (And, truly, many don't care, which is why I suggest moving it to a note instead of removing it.)

Reasoning -- Consulting a decent Japanese -- Japanese dictionary shows 「尻」(shiri) to have a wide range of meanings.

Even with a vernacular on-line dictionary like goo's English — Japanese dictionary, you find 「後」(ato: end, behind) as a definition, with examples that include the bottom of the class and the end of a line.

(I'd edit it myself, but I'm new here and don't want to be rude. And I haven't figured out the markup yet.) Reiisi (talk) 02:00, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Other English variant
I still play a game A LOT called GHOST that is similar. Best with three people, but can be played with two. Basically, the first person says a letter, than the second and so on. The goal is to avoid being the person who finishes a more-than-three-letter word. Here's an example for three people. If I'm first, maybe I say "K", second person says "N", third says "I", comes back to me so I say "F", then the second person is stuck, because the only English word that begins with "KNIF" is "KNIFE", so they lose that round. Also, if I say "K" and the next person says something crazy, like "Z", anyone can challenge. If the person can't come up with a word that starts with "KZ", they lose that round. Every time you lose a round, you pick up a letter in the word GHOST, till someone picks up all five letters and loses (you can keep playing for second place if you prefer). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:647:4900:5A82:AC54:BA40:EFDB:1452 (talk) 09:37, 18 February 2017 (UTC)