Talk:Aizuchi

External link no longer working

こんにちは、 the external link is no longer working - I'm getting a 404. Maybe the primary author of this page can adjust this - preferably change it with something better. As I have no suggestion, I'm just reporting it rather than changing the page myself.

Voidzero (talk) 10:42, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for reporting the dead link. I've managed to find a living version of the page at a new URL. Opencooper (talk) 20:45, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

Regarding a Merge with Backchannel (linguistics)

I undid the merge because the Backchannel article does not give the more detailed and specific information found on the Aizuchi article itself. Aizuchi is deserving of it's own article, I have on many occasions linked directly to the Aizuchi article when discussing dialogue in Japanese video games, and the backchanneling article is much too general and doesn't go into enough detail about Aizuchi to give a full explanation. XeroLimit (talk) 03:01, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

Whoops, lets just have the discussion here.

What detailed information would you like from this page to be found on the backchanneling article? Moritoriko (talk) 03:05, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

So a big reason is because there is a running joke or meme about a certain video game series (Metal Gear Solid) about the main character constantly repeating something another character has just said to him as a question. To explain the reasoning for this, I have found the Aizuchi article very useful for this. It is a form of backchanneling, but it is a very specific form that I feel is deserving of its own article because it shows up in a lot of Japanese media translated into English and people frequently question why the characters repeat things back so much. A google search of "Solid Snake repeating things" shows many examples of people asking about why this character does that, which I think shows enough reason to keep Aizuchi as it's own article. XeroLimit (talk) 03:16, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

And specifically, echo questions. Yes, there is an echo questions article, but doesn't cover Aizuchi specifically.

Because this is something frequently seen in Japanese media translated to English that people ask about, I think it is beneficial to keep this article. XeroLimit (talk) 03:21, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

I think the echo questions article is much more in detail about linguistics than makes sense for this but I added more information to the back channel article. Does that make it make more sense? Moritoriko (talk) 04:07, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

It does go into a lot of detail about a lot of linguistics in general but does not get into this Japanese specific use of them. The very fact that Aizuchi even has a name, to me, is another reason for this article to exist. A web search shows many news articles and discussions about it. Back channeling and echo questions aren't unique to any one language, but Aizuchi is noticeable enough to speakers of other languages to make people interested.

I have no history here (well, I do, but I guess my original account was purged due to a long time of inactivity) so my opinion on whether or not this article gets merged doesn't really amount to much, though. I would like for it to remain, but if it gets merged I'll at least attempt to give Aizuchi a sub section or something in the merge page, with the intention for similar things in other languages to be added to it. If you really feel this page is unnecessary, redundant, a waste of server space, or just don't like it (kidding!) then do as you must and merge them. Thanks for at least discussing it. XeroLimit (talk) 04:28, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

The original reason I merged them was because it felt a bit like that meme like

Thing -_-

Thing, Japan ☆〜（ゝ。∂）

And of course there are words like densha but I thought it silly to have a separate page for the same thing. By all means please go ahead and add more to the backchannel page. I should have suspected you were around before with how well you know all the stuff, haha Moritoriko (talk) 05:03, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

Ah, I can see that. But for this, it's just that I explain Aizuchi so often and send them to this article for more information. So I was surprised when I couldn't find it. THen when going through the backchannel article it covers a lot of other aspects that aren't specifically Aizuchi related and Aizuchi itself wasn't explained as thoroughly enough and felt buried, making it harder for someone who is only mildly interested in it less likely to even read (which is sad, but this is the age of tiktok...) In the end, I would like more people to discuss this before a decision is made on keeping this page or merging, though. XeroLimit (talk) 06:53, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

3O Response: @XeroLimit @Moritoriko Hi y'all, I took a look at the pages, and personally, I feel like merging into Backchannel (linguistics) makes sense at this point. This page essentially describes what backchanneling is and then gives some examples in Japanese. I think the examples could just be put in the main article as a subsection and Aizuchi could redirect to that.
That being said, I think it's also possible to expand this article to the point where it could work as a standalone; I'm sure there're many papers covering this topic specifically in the Japanese context. InfernoHues (talk) 20:04, 26 January 2026 (UTC)