korya, sorya, arya こりゃ, そりゃ, ありゃ

In Japanese, korya, sorya, arya こりゃ, そりゃ, ありゃ are contractions of kore, sore, are これ, それ, あれ marked as the topic by the wa は particle.

For example: nanda korya なんだこりゃ means the same thing as nanda kore wa なんだこれは, "what is this?!" See also: nani kore なにこれ and emotive right-dislocation.

Interrogative pronouns, like dore どれ, can't be marked as the topic, so there's no contraction for dore wa どれは. However, the word dorya どりゃ does exist, and it does come from dore どれ, but its usage is different.

The word dorya is used to say "how do you like that!" when someone just did something, or will do something. In anime, it's generally used after a character attacks another, and then it's translated as "take that!" or something similar.

• Examples

Examples

For reference, some examples:

Manga: Fullmetal Alchemist, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi 鋼の錬金術師 (Chapter 4, 車上の戦い)

• Context: Edward Elric エドワード・エルリック uses alchemy to knot a gun.
  • These panels feature all sorts of line effects.
• uo!?
  うお！？
  Oof!?
• !? nanja koryaa!!
  ！？なんじゃこりゃあ！！
  What is this!?
  (emotive right-dislocation.)
• bu!!
  ぶ！！
  *hurt noises*

Manga: Kids on the Slope, Sakamichi no Apollon 坂道のアポロン (Chapter 18)

• Context: the speaker confidently talks about how amazing Jun was.
• Jun-nii no koukousei yatta koro wa
  淳兄の高校生やったころは
  Around the time brother Jun [was] a high school student.
• sorya mou
  そりゃもう
  "That [was] already."
  • Expression used to say something is incredible.
• kakkou-yoka nante mon janakatta desu yo
  格好よかなんてもんじゃなかったですよ
  Not something [you'd call just] cool.
  • Note: this is kyuushuu dialect. In which i-adjectives sometimes end in ka instead.
  • kakkou-yoka
    格好よか
    Cool.
  • kakkou-yoi
    格好よい
    (same meaning.)
  • kakkou-ii
    格好いい
    (same meaning.)
• kenka mo meppou tsuyokashi
  ケンカもめっぽう強かし
  In fighting, too, [he was] extremely strong.
  • tsuyoka
    強か
    Strong.
  • tsuyoi
    強い
    (same meaning.)
• atama mo yokashi
  頭もよかし
  [He was also smart.]
  • atama ga yoka
    頭がよか
    "Head is good."
    To be smart.
  • atama ga yoi
    頭がよい
    (same meaning.)
  • atama ga ii
    頭がいい
    (same meaning.)