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「神{かみ}のみぞ知{し}るセカイ」 is the title of a manga/anime series but I'm not asking
about the anime. I'm just curious about the 「ぞ」 part in the title.

I know there is a ぞ particle that is similar to よ, such that 行{い}くぞ is similar
to 行くよ. But I have never encountered よ nor ぞ in the middle of a
sentence/clause before, so this made me curious.

Which part of speech is that ぞ? What connotation does it bring and how do we
use it in a sentence?

p/s: I know the ぞ is not a part of のみぞ because when I entered のみぞ in my
Japanese dictionary software it only returned のみ = “only" so I deduced that
the ぞ is a separate word.
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2011-06-01T01:28:44.457
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particles idioms parts-of-speech particle-ぞ
Which part of speech is the 「ぞ」 in 「神のみぞ知るセカイ」?
It's an emphatic particle from old Japanese. _Only_ God/Gods. There's another
one used with questions to show more uncertainty. "どこぞで休んでいくか" (デジタル大辞泉)
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2011-06-01T01:37:23.057
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If you look at koujien's entry for ぞ there are several uses (mostly outdated),
but I think the one which applies here is: 一つの事柄を特に指定し強調する｡ In other words, it
places emphasis on something specific. So in reguards to this light
novel/anime series title I think it places emphasis on the fact that the/a
world which ONLY GOD knows about.

Also, this reminded me of a famous quote of Sakamoto Ryouma 世の人はわれは何ともいはばいへ
わがなすことは我のみぞ知る something like "No matter what society says, I know the meaning
to my own actions" basically, screw what society says, because I know the path
I want to go down.

I believe he's emphasizing that what matters is that HE knows what he should
be doing.
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2011-06-01T01:47:48.720
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