Senkyoshigo ( ja, 宣教師語, lit=missionary language) is a non-secret

cant Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a la ...

developed and spoken by

Mormon missionaries Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)—widely known as Mormon missionaries—are volunteer representatives of the church who engage variously in proselytizing, church service, humanitarian aid, and commu ...

serving at missions in Japan which synthesizes the native

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 ...

of missionaries with aspects of Japanese. Although the

grammatical framework Grammatical Framework (GF) is a programming language for writing grammars of natural languages. GF is capable of parsing and generating texts in several languages simultaneously while working from a language-independent representation of meaning. ...

of the cant is primarily rooted in English, it synthesizes English

function words In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...

with a primarily Japanese

lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...

with English pronunciations of words.

Characteristics

Senkyoshigo maintains the pronunciation, morphology, and syntax of English but utilizes lexical items from Japanese as well as slang terms formed from Japanese words, ultimately comprising a cant that is unintelligible to non-members. However, Senkyoshigo is not intended to be a secret language, as it is taught to new missionaries openly and is often used in a recreational sense as a form of group bonding. Situation also plays an important role in whether or not missionaries speak Senkyoshigo as opposed to English or Japanese. Since Senkyoshigo is often considered frivolous by mission leaders, its use in religious meetings is often admonished compared to its frequent usage in more casual settings. However, subdued Senkyoshigo is still commonly heard in interviews with mission leaders and church meetings with other missionaries. There has been some disagreement in academia regarding the status of Senkyoshigo, but general consensus considers it to not be a proper example of a

mixed language A mixed language is a language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. It differs from a creole language, creole or pidgin, pidgin language in that ...

due to the conscious effort on the part of missionaries to develop new vocabulary and the limited usage to in-group communication rather than to communicate between English and Japanese speakers. This is further supported by the fact that all speakers of Senkyoshigo can speak English and Japanese and are expected to do so in formal settings, therefore not requiring a proper mixed language in the first place. An example of a sentence in Senkyoshigo would be "Hey dode, have you benkyo-ed your seiten-s for our shukai today yet?" which would translate into English as, "Hey companion, have you studied your scriptures for our meeting today yet?" Although there is a degree of consistency in regards to vocabulary and syntax between missions, some variance in vocabulary exists and Senkyoshigo can take different forms between different missions. Senkyoshigo slang has also varied over time, which can be seen in the altering of the term to describe mailmen changing from "bigot" to "steve" over the decades.

References

{{Latter-day Saints American English English-based argots The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan * Japanese word games Macaronic forms of English