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Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
for "
loan word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
", and indicates a
transcription into Japanese In contemporary Japanese writing, foreign-language loanwords and foreign names are normally written in the katakana script, which is one component of the Japanese writing system. As far as possible, sounds in the source language are matched to ...
. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed in ancient times from Old or
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
(especially
Literary Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...
), but in modern times, primarily from
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
,
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
,
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
, and modern Chinese dialects, such as
Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...
and
Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
. These are primarily written in the
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
phonetic script, with a few older terms written in Chinese characters (
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
); the latter are known as
ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...
. Japanese has many loan words from Chinese, accounting for a sizeable fraction of the language. These words were borrowed during ancient times and are written in ''kanji''. Modern Chinese loanwords are generally considered ''gairaigo'' and written in ''katakana'', or sometimes written in ''kanji'' (either with the more familiar word as a base text gloss and the intended ''katakana'' as
furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana or syllabic characters printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known ...
or vice versa); pronunciation of modern Chinese loanwords generally differs from the corresponding usual pronunciation of the characters in Japanese. For a list of terms, see the
List of gairaigo and wasei-eigo terms ''Gairaigo'' are Japanese words originating from, or based on, foreign-language (generally Western) terms. These include ''wasei-eigo'' (Japanese pseudo-Anglicisms). Many of these loanwords derive from Portuguese, due to Portugal's early role ...
.


Source languages

Japanese has a long history of borrowing from foreign languages. It has been doing so since the late fourth century A.D. Some ancient ''gairaigo'' words are still being used nowadays, but there are also many kinds of ''gairaigo'' words that were borrowed more recently. Most, but not all, modern ''gairaigo'' are derived from
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, particularly in the post-World War II era (after 1945). Words are taken from English for concepts that do not exist in Japanese, but also for other reasons, such as a preference for English terms or fashionability – many ''gairaigo'' have Japanese near-synonyms. In the past, more ''gairaigo'' came from other languages besides English. The first period of borrowing occurred during the late fourth century A.D., when a massive number of Chinese characters were adopted. This period could be considered one of the most significant in the history of ''gairaigo'', because it was the first moment when the written communication systems using ''kanji'' were formed. The first non-Asian countries to have extensive contact with Japan were
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
and the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Japanese has several loanwords from
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
and
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
, many of which are still used. The interaction between Japan and Portugal lasted from the late middle age until the early Edo era. (1549-1638). An example of the loanwords from Portuguese is ''rasha'', meaning a thick wool cloth that was indispensable during the period, but not used often nowadays. In the Edo era (1603–1853), words from the Dutch language, such as ''glas'', ''gas'', and ''alcohol'', started to have an impact in the Japanese language. Also, during the Edo era, many medical words like ''Gaze'' (meaning
gauze Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave. In technical terms "gauze" is a weave structure in which the weft yarns are arranged in pairs and are crossed before and after each warp yarn keeping the weft firmly in place. ...
) and ''neuroses'' came from German, and many artistic words such as ''rouge'' and ''dessin'' came from French. Most of the ''gairaigo'' since the nineteenth century came from English. In the
Meiji era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...
(late 19th to early 20th century), Japan also had extensive contact with
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and gained many loanwords from
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, particularly for Western medicine, which the Japanese learned from the Germans. Notable examples include (often abbreviated to ) from German ("work"), and from German ''
Energie Energie can refer to: * Energie clothing, Italian clothing brand * Energie FC a Benin football club * Energie Group, a UK based fitness franchise company * Énergie, a French-language brand of rhythmic top 40 radio in Quebec, Canada * FC Energie ...
''. They also gained several loanwords from French at this time. In modern times, there are some borrowings from Modern Chinese and Modern Korean, particularly for food names, and these continue as new foods become popular in Japan; standard examples include ''ūron'' (烏龍 ウーロン "
oolong Oolong (, ; (''wūlóngchá'', "dark dragon" tea)) is a traditional semi-oxidized Chinese tea ('' Camellia sinensis)'' produced through a process including withering the plant under strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting.Zhonggu ...
tea") and ''kimuchi'' (キムチ "
kimchi ''Kimchi'' (; ko, 김치, gimchi, ), is a traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, such as napa cabbage and Korean radish. A wide selection of seasonings are used, including ''gochugaru'' (Korean chili powder), sprin ...
"), respectively, while more specialized examples include ''hoikōrō'' ( 回鍋肉 ホイコーロー "
twice cooked pork Twice-cooked pork or double-cooked pork () (literally "returned to the pan (wok)") is a Chinese dish in Sichuan cuisine. The pork is simmered, sliced, and then stir-fried -- "returned to the wok." The pork is accompanied with stir-fried vegetabl ...
") from Chinese, and ''bibinba'' ( ビビンバ "
bibimbap Bibimbap * ( , from Korean , literally "mixed rice"), sometimes romanized as bi bim bap or bi bim bop, is a Korean rice dish. The term "bibim" means "mixing" and "bap" refers to cooked rice. ''Bibimbap'' is served as a bowl of warm white rice ...
") from Korean. Chinese words are often represented with Chinese characters, but with ''katakana'' gloss to indicate the unusual pronunciation, while Korean words, which no longer regularly use Chinese characters (''
hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
''), are represented in ''katakana''. There is sometimes ambiguity in pronunciation of these borrowings, particularly voicing, such as ''to'' (ト) vs. ''do'' (ド) – compare English's
Daoism–Taoism romanization issue The English words Daoism () and Taoism ( or ) are alternative spellings for the same-named Chinese philosophy and religion. The root for Daoism or Taoism is the Chinese word 道 ("road" or "way"), which was transcribed '' tao'' or ''tau'' in t ...
. Some Modern Chinese borrowings occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries, due both to trade and resident Chinese in
Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...
, and a more recent wave of Buddhist monks, the
Ōbaku The is one of several schools of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, in addition to Sōtō and Rinzai. History Often termed the third sect of Zen Buddhism in Japan, Ōbaku-shū was established in 1661 by a small faction of masters from China and their ...
school, whose words are derived from languages spoken in
Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
. More recent Korean borrowings are influenced both by proximity, and to the substantial population of
Koreans in Japan comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...
since the early 20th century. In 1889, there were 85 ''gairaigo'' of Dutch origin and 72 ''gairaigo'' of English origin listed in a Japanese dictionary. From 1911 to 1924, 51% of ''gairaigo'' listed in dictionaries were of English origin, and today, 80% to 90% of ''gairaigo'' are of English origin. There have been some borrowings from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
as well, most notably for religious terms. These words are generally transliterations which were unknowingly borrowed from Chinese.


Doublets

In some cases, doublets or etymologically related words from different languages may be borrowed and sometimes used synonymously or sometimes used distinctly. The most common basic example is versus earlier , where they are used distinctly. A similar example is versus earlier ; thus is not redundant but means a drinking vessel specifically made of glass (e.g. as opposed to plastic). A more technical example is (English ''
sorbitol Sorbitol (), less commonly known as glucitol (), is a sugar alcohol with a sweet taste which the human body metabolizes slowly. It can be obtained by reduction of glucose, which changes the converted aldehyde group (−CHO) to a primary alcohol g ...
'') versus (German Sorbit), used synonymously.


''Wasei-kango''

In addition to borrowings, which adopted both meaning and pronunciation, Japanese also has an extensive set of new words that are crafted using existing Chinese morphemes to express a foreign term. These are known as ''
wasei-kango are those words in the Japanese language composed of Chinese morphemes but invented in Japan rather than borrowed from China. Such terms are generally written using kanji and read according to the ''on'yomi'' pronunciations of the characters. Whi ...
'' "Japanese-made Chinese words". This process is similar to the creation of
classical compound Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical and ...
s in European languages. Many were coined in the Meiji period, and these are very common in medical terminology. These are not considered ''gairaigo'', as the foreign word itself has not been borrowed, and sometimes a translation and a borrowing are both used.


Writing

In
written Japanese The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana. Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese wo ...
, ''gairaigo'' are usually written in ''
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
''. Older loanwords are also often written using ''
ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...
'' (''
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
'' chosen for their phonetic value, or sometimes for meaning instead) or
hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...
, for example ''tabako'' from Portuguese, meaning "tobacco" or "cigarette" can be written (''katakana''), (''hiragana''), or (the ''kanji'' for "smoke grass", but still pronounced ''tabako'' – an example of meaning-based ''ateji''), with no change in meaning. Another common older example is ''
tempura is a typical Japanese dish usually consisting of seafood, meat and vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. The dish was introduced by the Portuguese in Nagasaki through fritter-cooking techniques in the 16th century. The word ''tem ...
,'' which is usually written in mixed ''kanji''/''kana'' ( mazegaki) as , but is also written as (rare kanji) or (common kanji) – here it is sound-based ''ateji,'' with the characters used for their phonetic values only. Few ''gairaigo'' are sometimes written with a single ''kanji'' character (chosen for meaning or newly created); consequently, these are considered ''
kun'yomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequen ...
'' rather than ''ateji'' because the single characters are used for meaning rather than for sound and are often written as katakana. An example is ; see single-character loan words for details.


False friends and ''wasei-eigo''

There are numerous causes for confusion in ''gairaigo'': (1) ''gairaigo'' are often abbreviated, (2) their meaning may change (either in Japanese or in the original language after the borrowing has occurred), (3) many words are not borrowed but rather coined in Japanese (''
wasei-eigo are Japanese-language expressions based on English words, or parts of word combinations, that do not exist in standard English or whose meanings differ from the words from which they were derived. Linguistics classifies them as pseudo-loanwords ...
'' "English made in Japan"), and (4) not all ''gairaigo'' come from English. Due to Japanese pronunciation rules and its
mora Mora may refer to: People * Mora (surname) Places Sweden * Mora, Säter, Sweden * Mora, Sweden, the seat of Mora Municipality * Mora Municipality, Sweden United States * Mora, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Mora, Minnesota, a city * M ...
-based phonology, many words take a significant amount of time to pronounce. For example, a one-syllable word in a language such as English (''brake'') often becomes several syllables when pronounced in Japanese (in this case, ''burēki'' (), which amounts to four moras). The Japanese language, therefore, contains many abbreviated and contracted words, and there is a strong tendency to shorten words. This also occurs with ''gairaigo'' words. For example, "remote control", when transcribed in Japanese, becomes ''rimōto kontorōru'' (), but this has then been simplified to ''rimokon'' (). For another example, the transcribed word for "department store" is ''depātomento sutoa'' () but has since been shortened to ''depāto'' ().
Clipped compound ''Clipped'' is a video featuring five tracks by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. First released in 1991, it contained three tracks from ''The Razors Edge (AC/DC album), The Razors Edge'' and two from ''Blow Up Your Video''. In 2002 a DVD ve ...
s, such as ''wāpuro'' () for "word processor", are common. ''
Karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...
'' (), a combination of the Japanese word ''kara'' "empty" and the clipped form, ''oke'', of the English loanword "orchestra" (J. ''ōkesutora'' ), is a clipped compound that has entered the English language. Japanese ordinarily takes the first part of a foreign word, but in some cases the second syllable is used instead; notable examples from English include and . Some Japanese people are not aware of the origins of the words in their language, and may assume that all ''gairaigo'' words are legitimate English words. For example, Japanese people may use words like ''tēma'' (, from German ''Thema'', meaning "topic/theme") in English, or ''rimokon'', not realizing that the contraction of "remote control" to ''rimokon'' took place in Japan. Similarly, ''gairaigo'', while making Japanese easier to learn for foreign students in some cases, can also cause problems due to independent
semantic progression Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from ...
. For example, English "stove", from which ''sutōbu'' () is derived, has multiple meanings. Americans often use the word to mean a cooking appliance, and are thus surprised when Japanese take it to mean a space heater (such as a wood-burning stove). The Japanese term for a cooking stove is another ''gairaigo'' term, ''renji'' (), from the English "range"; a gas stove is a ''gasurenji'' (). Additionally, Japanese combines words in ways that are uncommon in English. As an example, ''left over'' is a
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
term for a hit that goes over the left-fielder's head rather than uneaten food saved for a later meal. This is a term that appears to be a loan but is actually ''
wasei-eigo are Japanese-language expressions based on English words, or parts of word combinations, that do not exist in standard English or whose meanings differ from the words from which they were derived. Linguistics classifies them as pseudo-loanwords ...
''. It is sometimes difficult for students of Japanese to distinguish among ''gairaigo'', '' giseigo'' (
onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
), and '' gitaigo'' (
ideophone Ideophone is a word class evoking ideas in sound imitation or onomatopoeia to express action, manner of property. Ideophone is the least common syntactic category cross-linguistically occurring mostly in African, Australian and Amerindian langua ...
s: words that represent the manner of an action, like "zigzag" in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
— ''jiguzagu'' in Japanese), which are also written in
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
. ''Wasei-eigo'' presents more difficulties for Japanese and learners of Japanese as such words, once entered the lexicon, combine to form any number of potentially confusing combinations. For example, the loanwords ''chance'', ''pink'', ''erotic'', ''over'', ''down'', ''up'', ''in'', ''my'', and ''boom'' have all entered ''wasei-eigo'' lexicon, combining with Japanese words and other English loanwords to produce any number of combination words and phrases. 'Up,' or ''appu'', is famously combined with other words to convey an increase, such as ''seiseki appu'' (increased results) and ''raifu appu'' (improved quality of life). 'My," or ''mai'', also regularly appears in advertisements for any number and genre of items. From "My Fanny" toilet paper to "My Hand" electric hand drills, ''mai'' serves as a common advertising tool. Infamously, the beverage brand Calpis sold a product regrettably named ''mai pisu'' or 'my piss' for a short time. ''Wasei-eigo'' is often employed to disguise or advertise risque or sexual terms and innuendos, especially when used by women. ''Wasei-eigo'' terms referencing a person's characteristics, personality, and habits also commonly appear as Japanese street slang, from ''poteto chippusu'' or 'potato chips' for a hick and ''esu efu'' 'SF' for a 'sex friend.'


Grammatical function

''Gairaigo'' are generally nouns, which can be subsequently used as verbs by adding auxiliary verb . For example, "play soccer" is translated as サッカーをする (sakkā o suru). Some exceptions exist, such as , which conjugates as a normal Japanese verb – note the unusual use of ''katakana'' () followed by ''hiragana'' (). Another example is ''gugu-ru'' (ググる, "to google"), which conjugates as a normal Japanese verb, in which the final syllable is converted into ''
okurigana are kana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words. They serve two purposes: to inflect adjectives and verbs, and to force a particular kanji to have a specific meaning and be read a certain way. For example, the plain verb fo ...
'' to enable conjugation. ''Gairaigo'' function as do morphemes from other sources, and, in addition to ''wasei eigo'' (words or phrases from combining ''gairaigo''), ''gairaigo'' can combine with morphemes of Japanese or Chinese origin in words and phrases, as in (compare ), (compare ) or . In set phrases, there is sometimes a preference to use all ''gairaigo'' (in ''katakana'') or all ''kango/
wago are native Japanese Language, Japanese words, meaning those words in Japanese language, Japanese that have been inherited from Old Japanese, rather than being borrowed at some stage. Together with Sino-Japanese vocabulary, kango () and gairaigo ...
'' (in ''kanji''), as in (''mansurii manshon'', monthly apartment) versus (''tsukigime chūshajō,'' monthly parking lot), but mixed phrases are common, and may be used interchangeably, as in (''tenanto boshū'') and (''nyūkyosha boshū''), both meaning "looking for a tenant".


Phonology

Borrowings traditionally have had pronunciations that conform to Japanese phonology and
phonotactics Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek "voice, sound" and "having to do with arranging") is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...
. For example, ''platform'' was borrowed as /hōmu/, because */fo/ is not a sound combination that traditionally occurs in Japanese. However, in recent years, some ''gairaigo'' are pronounced more closely to their original sound, which is represented by non-traditional combinations of ''katakana'', generally using small ''katakana'' or diacritics (voicing marks) to indicate these non-traditional sounds. Compare and ''sumaho'' (スマホ, "smart phone"), where traditional sounds are used, and , a variant of the latter word using traditional sounds, where the non-traditional combination (fu-o) is used to represent the non-traditional sound combination /fo/. This leads to long words; e.g., the word for "fanfare" is spelled out as , with seven ''kana'', no shorter than the Roman alphabet original (it is possible that it was not loaned from English because the "e" is not silent). Similarly, Japanese traditionally does not have any /v/ phoneme, instead approximating it with /b/, but today /v/ (normally realized ''not'' as v.html"_;"title="Voiced_labiodental_fricative.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Voiced_labiodental_fricative">v">Voiced_labiodental_fricative.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Voiced_labiodental_fricative">vbut_as_bilabial_[Voiced_bilabial_fricative.html" ;"title="Voiced_labiodental_fricative">v.html" ;"title="Voiced_labiodental_fricative.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Voiced labiodental fricative">v">Voiced_labiodental_fricative.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Voiced labiodental fricative">vbut as bilabial [Voiced bilabial fricative">β]) is sometimes used in pronunciations: for example, "violin" can be pronounced either or , with (literally "voiced u"+"a") representing /va/. Another example of the Japanese transformation of English pronunciation is , in which the two-syllable word ''taxi'' becomes three syllables (and four morae, thanks to long ''ī'') because consonants don't occur consecutively in traditional Japanese (with the exception of the coda ん/ン or /n/), and in which the sound i("see") of English is pronounced ɕi.html" ;"title="Voiceless_alveolo-palatal_sibilant.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant">ɕi">Voiceless_alveolo-palatal_sibilant.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant">ɕi(which to monoglot English speakers will sound like "she") because /si/ in Japanese is realized as such. This change in Japanese phonology following the introduction of foreign words (here primarily from English) can be compared to the earlier posited change in Japanese phonology following the introduction of Chinese loanwords, such as closed syllables (CVC, not just CV) and Length (phonetics), length becoming a phonetic feature with the development of both Vowel length, long vowels and Gemination, long consonants – see Early Middle Japanese#Developments, Early Middle Japanese: Phonological developments. Due to the difficulties that Japanese have in Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers, distinguishing "l" and "r", this expansion of Japanese phonology has not extended to use of different ''kana'' for /l/ vs. /r/, though application of handakuten for representing /l/ has been proposed as early as Meiji era. Therefore, words with /l/ or /r/ may be spelled identically if borrowed into Japanese. One important exception is due to the fact that Japanese typically borrows English words in a
non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
fashion, so that syllable-final "-r" and "-l" can still be distinguished. For example, "bell" is ベル and "bear" is ベア, rather than both being ベル.


As a built-in lexicon of English

The English words that are borrowed into Japanese include many of the most useful English words, including high-frequency vocabulary and academic vocabulary. Thus ''gairaigo'' may constitute a useful built-in lexicon for Japanese learners of English. ''Gairaigo'' have been observed to aid a Japanese child's learning of ESL vocabulary. With adults, ''gairaigo'' assist in English-word aural recognition and pronunciation, spelling, listening comprehension, retention of spoken and written English, and recognition and recall at especially higher levels of vocabulary. Moreover, in their written production, students of Japanese prefer using English words that have become ''gairaigo'' to those that have not.


Misconceptions

The word ''arigatō'' (Japanese for "thank you") sounds similar to the Portuguese word ''obrigado'', which has the same meaning. Given the number of borrowings from Portuguese, it may seem reasonable to suppose that the Japanese imported that word—which is the explanation accepted and indeed published by many. However, ''arigatō'' is not a ''gairaigo''; rather, it is an abbreviation of ''arigatō gozaimasu'', which consists of an
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
of the native Japanese adjective ''arigatai'' () combined with the polite verb ''gozaimasu''. There is evidence, for example in the ''
Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...
'', that the word ''arigatai'' was in use several centuries before contact with the Portuguese. This makes the two terms
false cognate False cognates are pairs of words that seem to be cognates because of similar sounds and meaning, but have different etymologies; they can be within the same language or from different languages, even within the same family. For example, the Engl ...
s. If the Portuguese word had been borrowed, it would most likely have taken the form オブリガド (''oburigado''), or maybe ''ōrigado'' (due to historical ''afu'' and ''ofu'' collapsing to ''ō''), and while it is even possible that it would be spelled with as ''ateji'', it would regardless start with ''o'' rather than ''a'', and the final ''o'' would have been short rather than long.


Reborrowings from Japanese

Some ''gairaigo'' words have been
reborrowed Reborrowing is the process where a word travels from one language to another and then back to the originating language in a different form or with a different meaning. This path is indicated by A → B → A, where A is the originating language, an ...
into their original source languages, particularly in the jargon of fans of Japanese entertainment. For example, ''
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
'' () is ''gairaigo'' derived from the English word for "
animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
", but has been reborrowed by English with the meaning of "Japanese animation". Similarly, ''
puroresu is the predominant style of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of , which is shortened to puroresu. The term became popular among English-speaking fans due to Hisaharu Tanabe's act ...
'' () derives from "
professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
", and has been adopted by English-speaking wrestling fans as a term for the style of pro wrestling performed in Japan. '' Kosupure'' (), or ''cosplay'', was formed from the English words "costume play", referring to dressing in costumes such as those of anime,
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
, or videogame characters, and is now commonly used in English and other languages (also using Western cartoon realms). There are also rare examples of borrowings from Indo-European languages, which have subsequently been borrowed by other Indo-European languages, thus yielding distant cognates. An example is , originally borrowed from Russian икра (''ikra''), and possibly distantly cognate (from the same Indo-European root) to English "
roe Roe ( ) or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooked in ...
" (fish eggs), though the only indication is the shared "r".


See also

*
Cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
* List of ''gairaigo'' and ''wasei-eigo'' terms **
Japanese words of Portuguese origin Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language when Portuguese Jesuit priests introduced Christian ideas, Western science, technology and new products to the Japanese during the Muromachi period (15th and 16th centuries). ...
**
Japanese words of Dutch origin Japanese words of Dutch origin started to develop when the Dutch East India Company initiated trading in Japan from the factory (trading post), factory of Hirado in 1609. In 1640, the Dutch were transferred to Dejima, and from then on until 1854 ...
*
Engrish ''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of Japanese, as well as Chinese and other Asian languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to s ...
*
List of English words of Japanese origin Words of Japanese origin have entered many languages. Some words are simple transliterations of Japanese language words for concepts inherent to Japanese culture, but some are actually words of Chinese origin that were first exposed to English v ...
* Japanese Pidgin English


References

;Inline citations ;Sources
http://www.tsu.ac.jp/bulletin/bulletin/pdf/15/087-101.pdf
*Olah, Ben.
English Loanwords in Japanese: Effects, Attitudes and Usage as a Means of Improving Spoken English Ability
". Vol.9, No.1, pp.177-188, December 2007. *"", .
Kotobank
',
the Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...
. * {{italic title Japanese writing system terms Japanese vocabulary