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Which しんこう is the one Yotsuba-chan meant when she said 「しゅっぱつしんこ〜」 in the manga excerpt below? WWWJDIC lists so many two-kanji words that read as しんこう, and even after eliminating totally irrelevant ones there are still a few plausible choices:

新興 【しんこう】 (n,adj-no) rising; developing; emergent;
進行 【しんこう】 (n,vs) advance; progress;
進攻 【しんこう】 (n,vs) attack; drive; advance; invasion;
進航 【しんこう】 (n,vs) sailing on

enter image description here

(From manga 「よつばと！」, 4th volume, page 30)

Lukman
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  • Well, is he riding on a boat/ship in this scene (can't tell from the picture)? If so, it's probably 進航. – istrasci Sep 23 '11 at 17:42
  • It's by car, but I don't want to ignore possibility that she was imagining the journey to be sort of like adventure, so I didn't eliminate 進航 from the choices. She, her father and neighbors were going out for fishing btw. – Lukman Sep 23 '11 at 17:45
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    Derek's answer is right, and I am pretty sure it is not 進航. It is not used regularly among people who are not particularly related to sailing. –  Sep 23 '11 at 18:00
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    @istrasci despite the art style, I'm pretty sure Yotsuba-chan is female. :) – Karl Knechtel Sep 23 '11 at 19:54
  • Haha, coulda fooled me! – istrasci Sep 24 '11 at 15:25

1 Answers1

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Was this the one where they went fishing? That was a fun story. I'm starting to wish I hadn't eBay'd my Yotsuba books last year.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure 出発進行 is what you want. There's even a Wikipedia page for 出発進行 which says that this phrase is in the lingo book for train operators as part of the safety procedure of pointing and calling (指差喚呼). (The phrase basically means permission to advance has been granted.)

Derek Schaab
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  • Oh, I was almost sure that it was 進攻 because of the word 'drive' is in its WWWJDIC definition. But if 出発進行 is used by train operators then it makes more sense than 進攻 since it's possible that she picked it up from listening to the announcements :P Glad I asked it here :) – Lukman Sep 23 '11 at 17:53
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    Based on istrasci's comment on the OP, it very well may be a pun on 出発進行 and 進航. Or if its not on a boat but a vehicle, it could be a pun with 進攻... or maybe all/none of them... I wouldn't be surprised either way given the context. – Anon Sep 23 '11 at 17:55
  • I'm not sure the meaning is different enough between 進行 and 進攻 to really call it a pun... – Karl Knechtel Sep 23 '11 at 19:56
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    I don't see what there is in the provided (or actual) context that makes it seem like a pun at all (rather than simply Yotsuba quoting a cool phrase she's heard used to mean "You can go now!"). – Hyperworm Sep 23 '11 at 20:44