おく for "home country"?


I've been asked a couple of times by Japanese where my "おく" was, and I just
respond to where my country of origin (the answer is what they were expecting
so I guess I have the right notion of what it means).

I can't actually find おく in the dictionary referring to country. Is it short
for something (like お国)?




おくに

> ejje.weblio.jp -- お国を英語に訳すと ⇒ くに
>
> 用例
>
>   * お国はどちらですか. Where [What country] do you come from?
>
>   * お国では皆さまお変わりもありませんか. Is everybody at home well?
>
>

Heimat

For some reason they pronounced the に in おくに very weakly. I'm not sure why.
(Local dialect?)

In speech, most ppl are already saying it without the WA as: お国どちらですか? -- and
i suppose this sounds a bit like おくんどちらですか? --or-- おくんどちらですか?

The vowel in に of おくに is more schwa-like than [i] or [i:] of English or
German, for sure. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa>

