English Loanwords in Japanese: A Selection: Learn Japanese Vocabulary the Easy Way with this Useful Japanese Phrasebook, Dictionary & Grammar Guide

ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN JAPANESE

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BOXERBOOKS, INC., Zurich

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PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London

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BOOK WISE (AUSTRALIA) PTY. LTD.

104-108 Sussex Street, Sydney 2000

Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.

of Rutland, VermontTokyo, Japan

with editorial offices at

Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032

Copyright in Japan,1979

by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 78-65031

International Standard Book No. 978-1-4629-0296-5

First printing, 1979

Printed in Japan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD

Japanese imported an amazing number of words from English, especially since the end of World War II. These words have become bona fide parts of the Japanese vocabulary and have found their way into daily conversation and even, in some cases, into written work. All languages are sensitive to changes in the cultures in which they are used, but perhaps Japanese has displayed a particular facility for adapting to this era of international exchange. Japanese has made hundreds of imported words its own. In the last few decades English has had considerable impact on this Eastern tongue.

This appears remarkable when one considers the large linguistic gap between Japanese and English, and admits that few Japanese words have entered English. Those that have been accepted in English tend to be names of things uniquely Japanese, words for which there is no English equivalent, like kimono. A list of representative words of Japanese origin used in English is contained in the Appendix.

By contrast, many of the English terms borrowed by the Japanese became popular even though there already existed perfectly good Japanese words for the concepts expressed. In fact, many of the borrowed terms have completely replaced their Japanese counterparts.

However, words borrowed from English tend to add meanings and gain and lose popularity much more quickly than Japanese or Sino-Japanese words. Imported words in use now may thus sound old-fashioned within a few years. This makes it extremely difficult for a foreign student of Japanese to keep up with the changes. Some of the borrowed words are easy to understand and are used just as they are in English. These pose no problem. However, in many cases, Japanese incorporates only one meaning of a borrowed word which in English has various meanings, or uses the term only in special situations. Ingenious citizens may even coin terms based on English words, and these will stump native speakers of English.

Despite the quick turnover of borrowed words and despite the fact that even those that remain in use may shift in meaning, at any given time a sizable number of words borrowed from English will be a part of the vocabulary of the average Japanese person.

A student may be at a loss as to how to look up some of these borrowed words, since standard Japanese-English dictionaries rarely have complete or up-to-date lists of the imports. The few books in English on the subject are far from adequate. Even the dictionaries of borrowed words written for the Japanese may prove unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons discussed by the author in his introduction. This little volume makes no pretensions to completeness, but contains those words borrowed from English which the author feels will be most problematic for or most interesting to the student of language. The author has tried to provide current usage, although, of course, older words and usages are also included for reference.

The Japanese write all but a few borrowed words (e.g.,sebiro) in the phonetic katakana alphabet. The system used here has been alphabetization of the forms in modified Hepburn romanization. The book has been designed as an easy-to-use dictionary with valuable notes on usage. It is our hope that this book will help fill the needs of students of Japanese and will prove interesting to all those fascinated by languages.

INTRODUCTION

THIS BOOK was born out of my dissatisfaction with the way loanwords are treated in Japanese dictionaries, including loanword dictionaries. Japanese dictionaries list a great number of loanwords, but their definitions and explanations are often incomplete or inadequate. Suppose we look up ¹ōru (all). Under ōru, we find Japanese equivalents such as zenbu, subete, and mina. The trouble is that information as to when ōru may be used instead of these other words is not included. A foreigner who looks up the word in a dictionary, therefore, may feel tempted to use ōru whenever the use of the Japanese equivalents is appropriate, but in reality ōru is quite limited in use. We cannot say, for example, *Sore o ōru kudasai to mean Please give me all of them. To convey this idea, we have to say Sore o zenbu kudasai. The fact is that ōru is used only in combination with other nouns, particularly when they are also loanwords, e.g., ōru-ūru (all wool) and ōru-nairon (all nylon). However, this kind of information is usually not given in dictionaries.

Some loanwords are considered more up-to-date than their non-loan counterparts. For example, although ¹kisu (kiss) is equated with seppun in dictionaries, kisu has become a much more common word than seppun. Seppun is probably used only in written Japanese nowadays, but this is not explained in dictionaries.

Some loanwords are preferred by many to their non-loan equivalents because of their connotation of new, modern, and therefore better. For example, many Japanese, especially those associated with commercial establishments, have started using lbūtsu (boots) instead of nagagutsu. Although both words basically mean the same thing, būtsu is a newer word derived from English boots, and therefore has a more desirable connotation than does nagagutsu, a non-loan. It is for this reason that women's fashionable boots in particular are referred to as būtsu. Dictionaries do not explain this point.

Sometimes a loanword refers to something Westernized, whereas a corresponding non-loanword does not. For example, ¹kitchin, from English kitchen, may identify a Western-style kitchen while a more traditional kitchen must be called daidokoro. There is no explanation of this in the dictionary under kitchin.

Loanwords are sometimes used as euphemisms with reference to unpleasant things. For example, ¹toire, from English toilet, is frequently used in lieu of the non-loan-word benjo, which sounds too blunt and tactless. Another example of this group is ¹mensu for mens(truation). Mensu is often used in place of its non-loan equivalent, gekkei or seiri. This sort of information is also missing from dictionaries.

Some loanwords are used by Japanese who want to impress others. For example, ¹konpurekkusu, meaning inferiority complex, has a non-loan counterpart, rettōkan. But some people feel that using konpurekkusu makes them seem more educated and important. Other examples of such words are nihirizumu (nihilism) and eōshonaru (emotional). Each of these can be replaced by a non-loanword, but loanwords are often used by pedants. It is unfortunate that this kind of information cannot be found in dictionaries.

In addition, dictionaries often do not explain how the meaning of a given loanword differs from that of the original foreign word. Take, for example, ¹bosu, from English boss. Whereas boss is not necessarily a derogatory term, Japanese bosu almost always implies clandestine activities. Consider also the loanword ¹sūpā. This word is very commonly used nowadays as an abbreviation of ¹sūpāmāketto (supermarket); in fact, because of its brevity, sūpā is probably preferred to the full form. In English, on the other hand, super can never serve as an abbreviation of supermarket although it is often used in the sense of supervisor or superintendent. As another example, the footwear called ¹surippa in Japan is actually quite different in shape, material, and use from what English slipper refers to. Detailed explanations of this sort are usually left out of the dictionary.

Then there are loanwords, such as ¹Kurisumasu (Christmas), which seem to have more or less the same meanings as the original foreign words. But even with these words, there is actually a significant difference in connotation because of the cultural differences between Japan and, say, the United States. For example, Christmas probably means a combination of three things to most Americans: (1) a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, (2) a time for the family to get together to eat good food and exchange Christmas presents, and (3) a time to enjoy Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and decorations. To most Japanese, on the other hand, Kurisumasu connotes mainly the last of these three items. Cultural explanations of this sort, however, are usually excluded from the dictionary.

The purpose of this book, therefore, is to offer the information described above, which is missing from a dictionary. There are literally thousands of loanwords in Japanese, but I have limited my discussion to a little over 400 words borrowed from English. I decided to discuss only English loanwords because, of all the modern languages with which Japanese has come into contact, English has been by far the most influential. Furthermore, of the foreign languages I have studied, English is the one I am most familiar with. I went over two loan-word dictionaries, Kadokawa Gairaigo Jiten and Sanseido's Konsaisu Gairaigo Jiten, from cover to cover, choosing appropriate items; I also examined other glossaries such as Bailey's A Glossary of Japanese Neologisms and Matsu-moto's The Random Dictionary. Needless to say, I studied a number of books and articles (see Bibliography at the end of this book) which deal with the subject of loan-words in Japanese, and gained valuable information on some words. I also consulted a word-frequency study done by Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyūjo (the National Language Research Institute) in 1970. In the last analysis, however, it was my own subjective judgment that I relied on for the selection of words, for the words chosen were the ones