「鈴の転がるような、軽やかで澄んだ声だった」 what is the meaning of の in this sentence? my guess is
that it meant something like: "It was a light and clear voice, like a rolling
bell". This feels right, but I think I'm getting confused with the の + 転がる. Is
の being used in the possessive form? Would が in place of の here make sense?
Any help would be appreciated.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-20T23:25:52.000
99698
2023-05-21T02:56:05.440
56557
question
grammar
the role of の in this sentence involving noun + の + verb in dictionary form
> Would が in place of の here make sense?

You're spot on, and this の here is indeed a replacement of が. This phenomenon
is known as the の-が conversion, and is a feature passed down from ancient
Japanese.

In ancient Japanese, there used to be no distinction between the usage of の
and が, and they were used interchangeably to mean possessive and subject-
marker. Even today, where の is mostly possessive particle and が subject
marker, the two can still take on the other meaning occasionally in modern
Japanese.

### が as a possessive marker

Today, we still use 我{わ}が国{くに}, a old-fashion expression passed down from
ancient Japanese, which just means my/our country (私たちの国). In anime, sometimes
people will use 我がXXX to mean my XXX, just to add an air of prestige to their
speech.

> 遊戯王の海馬瀬人：現れろ、 **我が魂** ！ブルーアイズホワイトドラゴン！ **我が敵** を喰らう！  
>  Kaiba Seto from YuGiOh: Appear, **my soul**! Blue eyes white dragon! Devour
> **my enemy**!

By the way, remember 鬼{おに}が島{しま}(or written 鬼ヶ島 but read the same) from 桃太郎?
Yeah, 鬼が島 is essentially 鬼の島, the island of oni.

### の as the subject marker

In ancient Japanese, you could use の freely as the subject marker. In modern
Japanese, however, the usage is limited to relative clauses. In other words,
in relative clauses, the subject marker が can be replaced with の in modern
Japanese. For example:

> 海の見える街 = 海が見える街  
>  私の知らないまま = 私が知らないまま

And of course, your sentence,

> 鈴の転がるよう... = 鈴が転がるよう...

鈴が転がる is the relative clause that modifies the noun よう.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-21T02:49:04.530
99700
2023-05-21T02:56:05.440
2023-05-21T02:56:05.440
39855
39855
99698
answer