nanninbun

[Beliskna]

Hello,

Please could someone explain what 'nanninbun' means in the sentence below.

nanninbun no kizu demo

I have used 'nannin' before in the context of how many people but I must be missing something here. Also am i right to say that 'kizu' means 'wound'.

Thanks for the help,

Mark.

[kichigaijin]

Not saying this is the correct answer but:

ninbun (人分） can mean "man minute".

Definition:
MAN-MINUTE - A unit for measuring work. It is equivalent to one person working at normal pace for one minute, two people working at normal pace for thirty seconds, or an equivalent combination of people working at normal pace for a period of time. (See MAN-HOUR.)

This is an instance where kanji and context would really come in handy.

[Beliskna]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply but I really dont think that is the translation im looking for because these are song lyrics

I have found a translation that reads everybody's but I desire to know how that has been derived.

Still a useful fact for an engineer such as myself.

Cheers,
Mark

[Bueller_007]

ninbun means "person's worth".

i.e. "san-ninbun no go-han" means "three person's worth of rice"

[kichigaijin]

Well bun ぶん　分　translates as "a share, a part, a portion" too (as well as "minute").

EDIT: Bueller's right "worth" works too

So:
nan なん　何　"what, how" + nin にん　人　"people" + bun ぶん　分　"share"

The only question I have, is if the でも　is modifying the 何, in order to get "however many people's injuries" thus "everyone's injuries" (similar to "when" + "でも" - いつでも becoming 'whenever'), if the でも　is offering a "but" to some other clause, or if it's softening the statement as a whole.

[Beliskna]

The translation I have found for the song is:

No matter how many wounds there are, I will take them

for

Nanninbun no kizu demo boku wa uketomerareru yo

I am actually trying to work through and see how it all fits together but its very slow going for me. Its an ongoing project if you like...

[kichigaijin]

yeah, in that case the "demo" modifies the "nan", making "however many peoples' (worth of, shares of) injuries".

btw- yes, kizu means wound.

[Beliskna]

How can you tell that demo modifies the nan, I mean like what are the rules?

[kichigaijin]

I only had a sentence fragment and wasn't sure if it was all one sentence or not.
After that I wasn't sure if the でも　was modifying きず　in some way, similar to:
ここは、コーヒーでも悪いです。
Here, even the coffee's bad.

The standard usage of でも can be found at the bottom of here:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/question.html#part4

But there's a nice discussion of how it's used as "but" right here:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/forum/vi ... hp?id=1233

In other words, it becomes "but" only at the beginning of a sentence, because it's a shortened form of "それでも”.

In your example the "nanninbunnokizu" (何人分の傷) is one idea that the でも is modifying.

[Beliskna]

Hmmm, I think this is going to take much more study for me. Still, you've given me some things to look into. Thanks for your help.

[Bueller_007]

"demo" simply doesn't make sense as "but" after an interrogative word.