If there¡¯s something like a Murphy¡¯s Law for syntax, the name of this restaurant near my school is a pretty good example of it. Reading ¡°Steak The First,¡± it always makes me wonder how these three words came to be aligned in just that order. ¡°The first steak,¡± ¡°first the steak,¡± ¡°the steak first¡± ¡ª all of these seem safe for consumption. But ¡°steak the first¡±?
In order to understand what¡¯s going on here, we need to appreciate the very specific way the little word ¡°the¡± is used in Japanese, where it is normally pronounced ¥¶ (za). Note that the reading may change to ¥¸ (ji) when the following word starts with a vowel, as in the name of the invincible Japanese rock band The Alfee, which officially reads ¥¸?¥¢¥ë¥Õ¥£©` (ji aruf¨©).
But since Japanese is a language that normally gets along perfectly well without articles, it¡¯s a bit challenging to understand what use it can make of ¥¶ in the first place. Even more puzzling is that, more often than not, ¥¶ shows up in places where English syntax wouldn¡¯t want you to put an article at all.
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