Japanese Words in Common Usage
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007Since 中国1 is so close to 日本2 there are some 日本語3 words that almost everyone here knows.
わたしは： Everyone knows how to introduce themselves. I guess it’s the first (and sometimes, the only) thing that everyone learns how to say in Japanese.
かわいい: Japanese people, particularly young girls, have a habit of yelling out this word at the top of their voices, while pointing at a small dog, foreign child, or tiny cellphone, where appropriate. Usually from the squeals of delight and giggling, the meaning can be ascertained. Also, it sounds very similar to the Chinese 可爱4, meaning ‘cute’ or ‘lovely’.
何5： アニメ is shown daily here, with Chinese subtitles. A friend of mine told me that he often watches them, and somehow remembered this word. He told me what he thought it meant (’what’). I told him that he was right. What a good student! I wish I could learn without trying. Anyway, he was pretty pleased that he picked up that one word, and I told him about jPod. He promises to be the first subscriber to the 中国語 version!
はい： Everyone knows this word.
Along with these random words, most people know the basics. Hi/Bye/Sorry (今日は6、さようなら、すみません) and maybe some loan words (料理7, 写真8).
Japanese readers might also be interested to find out how many Japanese words are regularly used in English. I was watching CSI the other day, and one of the characters was discussing a missing person. He said something along the lines of ‘maybe he just collected all his things, severed his ties to the community and said sayonara. Just up and left town’. This wasn’t a reference to a Japanese person or Japanese culture at all, but just a word in the English language. Other Japanese words that have entered English: Tsunami, Sumo (but not 陸士9) , Bushido, Karate, Manga, Sushi, Anime (Although anime is short for ‘animation’ so I’m not sure what language it comes from) and others.
Are there any other Japanese words in common usage in English that you can think of? I’m thinking of words that could be used without explanation to someone who doesn’t speak Japanese.
1ちゅう・ごく
２に・ほん
３に・ほん・ご
４kě ài. For all you Chinese learners!
5なに
6こん・にち・は
7りょう・り, liào lǐ in Chinese, from the Japanese word.
8しゃしん, xiě zhēn in Chinese， from the Japanese. Interesting that Japanese, having borrowed so much from Chinese, has now started giving back! 谢谢！
9りくし. Click here for a great lesson on Sumo!
Posted by Max in Max in Shanghai |
March 6th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Is 料理 a loan word? It is in the meaning of cuisine, but it is also a word in Chinese, meaning to arrange or manage (i.e., affairs). Another one that most young Chinese seem to know is もしもし.
One big group of Japanese words that have entered English is place names. I didn’t realize how big of a deal this was until trying to talk about Japanese place names in Chinese and realizing I didn’t know how to say any of them. Most Chinese know that 东京 is とうきょう, but other than that they don’t know the Japanese pronunciations of the cities, just their Chinese pronunciations.
March 6th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I’m pretty sure 料理 is a loanword (in Chinese, from Japanese).
You’re right that place names go into other languages. Usually languages use the native language’s name for that country’s locations. I guess 漢字 makes it a bit difficult for us English speakers. Instead of making a phoenetically similar name for 東京 the Chinese retain 漢字, but pronounce it differently.
Here’s a tricky one： the capital of China in English is Beijing, in Chinese 北京 (Japanese of course uses the same 漢字). Its original name, though, was Peking, taken from Guangdong dialect. Guangdongese is only spoken in Hong Kong and Guangdong province, but this was where most British (and therefore most English speakers) came into contact with Chinese people. They said that their capital was ‘Peking’ so the English kept referring to 北京 as Peking.
Recently, the English speaking world caught onto the fact that the majority of Chinese people don’t call the capital ‘Peking’ and so the English name “changed” to Beijing.
The REALLY difficult thing is that in Japanese the capital is pronounced ペキン. This word is presumably taken from the old English word, which in turn was taken from Guangdongese.
It is of course possible that the Japanese is taken directly from the Guangdongese, but I’m not sure.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:09 am
There are lots of words:
shogun, sensei, karaoke, bonzai, origami, samurai, ninja, dojo, kamikaze, miso, tempura, wasabi
March 10th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Yes, we use a number of Japanese words in English AND we slaughter their pronunciation, don’t we? Here are two more: harakiri (pronounced “Harry Caray” by Americans) and futon (pronounced foo-TAHN) Well, we could also mention names of cars, like “Honda” (pronounced Hahndah) and Toyota. We have lots of other brand names, too, like Suzuki and Yamaha. Do these count
March 11th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
But, on the other hand, as my friends reminded me, the Japanese have soooo many “borrowed words” from English and other languages, and THEY don’t pronounce these words as we do, either!!
March 13th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Another English word borrowed from Japanese is tycoon from 大君 (たいくん).
March 15th, 2007 at 12:05 am
Not sure about this one, but I always thought that “skosh” was one, as in “Can you move just a skosh to the left?” The meaning here, of course, being “a little bit.” I thought this came from 少し which means the the same thing in Japanese. Is this too much of a stretch?
March 31st, 2007 at 9:36 am
Rishi-san,
I think you are correct about “skosh”=”sukoshi”!!
March 31st, 2007 at 9:40 am
I checked it out. It is an English word, derived from Japanese: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/skosh
Cheers!
August 3rd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I interest Japanese, No time to study.