What does としか mean in this sentence?


Really struggling with the meaning of this sentence from ちびまる子ちゃん:

> まさにうららか **としか** 言いようのない日だね

My rough translation effort

> Surely, beautiful is the only way to describe this day

But I'm struggling to break down the grammar here, in particular the としか part.

My guess it that うららか is an onamatopeic kind of word and they seem to like to
take と and that is followed by しか meaning "only". So I would guess at "Surely
- beautiful - with the exception of - indescribable - day - is". Or in other
words "There's surely no way to describe the day other than beautiful".

Am I even close to a correct understanding here? If not please correct me.
Many thanks.




Sounds good to me. You've got your general 〜という formation here, only it's a
little embellished. 言いよう is a "way/manner of speaking"; in other words, a way
to describe something. [麗]{うら}らか is not an onomotopœia, but an adjective
meaning "beautiful". 麗らかと言いようのある日 would be "a day described as beautiful".
However, しか meaning "only" requires a negative verb, so it is changed to
麗らかと言いようの **ない** 日.

So more literally it translates as

> まさにうららかとしか言いようのない日だね → Surely, this is a day that cannot be described any
> way other than beautiful. → Surely, beautiful is the only way to describe
> this day.




Sounds good to me. You've got your general 〜という formation here, only it's a
little embellished. 言いよう is a "way/manner of speaking"; in other words, a way
to describe something. [麗]{うら}らか is not an onomotopœia, but an adjective
meaning "beautiful". 麗らかと言いようのある日 would be "a day described as beautiful".
However, しか meaning "only" requires a negative verb, so it is changed to
麗らかと言いようの **ない** 日.

So more literally it translates as

> まさにうららかとしか言いようのない日だね → Surely, this is a day that cannot be described any
> way other than beautiful. → Surely, beautiful is the only way to describe
> this day.

