87 The incorporation of English words into the Japanese language has been called the “bastardization”of English. Japanese people have been heard to say that they were ashamed that they could not use the English word correctly in Japanese. There are also published works that claim that the Japanese language is being ruined by the inclusion of too many foreign words. The purpose of this paper will be to show the role of foreign loan words in Japanese: how usage and pronunciation have changed and are changing, and what purpose such words play in the language. Such loan words are called GAIRAIGO in Japanese - literally, coming-from-abroad words. From the view of the native speaker of English, the use of a word from English in a different context, with a different nuance, or with a radically different pronunciation than the speaker is used to, can be a threat to the cultural identity of the speaker. However, when one considers that English has borrowed and is borrowing thousands of words from other languages, the Japanese process of borrowing can only be commended. * Margaret Pine OTAKE 国際言語文化学科(Department of International Language and Culture)非常勤講師 Gairaigo - Remodelling Language to Fit Japanese Margaret Pine OTAKE * ABSTRACT This paper in English first examines the history of the inclusion of gairaigo words in Japanese and then explores the changes in meaning, phonology, and morphology which occur in these words because of the structure of the Japanese language. The main thesis of the paper is that gairaigo are used to increase prestige, add color, or make distinctions in Japanese that are not possible with kanji. The idiomatic nature of these words means that they change constantly and disappear as each new age adopts other new words. As such, gairaigo vocabulary cease belonging to the language from which they were borrowed and cannot be considered pidgin-like mistakes. Extensive examples of various categories of gairaigo are provided.
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87
The incorporation of English words into the Japanese language has been called the
“bastardization”of English. Japanese people have been heard to say that they were ashamed that
they could not use the English word correctly in Japanese. There are also published works that
claim that the Japanese language is being ruined by the inclusion of too many foreign words. The
purpose of this paper will be to show the role of foreign loan words in Japanese: how usage and
pronunciation have changed and are changing, and what purpose such words play in the language.
Such loan words are called GAIRAIGO in Japanese - literally, coming-from-abroad words.
From the view of the native speaker of English, the use of a word from English in a different
context, with a different nuance, or with a radically different pronunciation than the speaker is used
to, can be a threat to the cultural identity of the speaker. However, when one considers that English
has borrowed and is borrowing thousands of words from other languages, the Japanese process of
borrowing can only be commended.
*Margaret Pine OTAKE 国際言語文化学科(Department of International Language and Culture)非常勤講師
Gairaigo - Remodelling Language to Fit Japanese
Margaret Pine OTAKE*
ABSTRACT
This paper in English first examines the history of the inclusion of gairaigo words in Japanese and
then explores the changes in meaning, phonology, and morphology which occur in these words
because of the structure of the Japanese language. The main thesis of the paper is that gairaigo are
used to increase prestige, add color, or make distinctions in Japanese that are not possible with kanji.
The idiomatic nature of these words means that they change constantly and disappear as each new
age adopts other new words. As such, gairaigo vocabulary cease belonging to the language from
which they were borrowed and cannot be considered pidgin-like mistakes. Extensive examples of
various categories of gairaigo are provided.
東京成徳大学人文学部研究紀要 第 15 号(2008)
88
Words are borrowed from another language in order to fulfill a need: to name something new
that has no name in the language, to express something with a different nuance than is possible
with the original term, or to enhance the status of the speaker by use of the borrowed word. The
use of borrowed words does not imply a deficiency in the phonological system or in the syntax of
the language that does the borrowing, so we can expect that the words borrowed from a language
with a different phonology and syntax will be changed to fit the requirements of the language. And,
indeed, this is what happens in Japanese.
Japanese has three methods for notation of the written language: 1) kanji, or Chinese ideograms,
2) hiragana, symbols that can represent each sound in the language, and 3) katakana, a set of
symbols that corresponds to hiragana and is used to denote words that are emphasized, or, mainly,
to denote words that have been borrowed from a language that does not use ideograms. Kanji can
be called the basis of the language since ideograms are used to represent most ideas and words. In
fact, kanji and much of the vocabulary used in Japanese were borrowed from China in the eighth
and ninth centuries. These could be called the original loan words. However, this paper will not deal
with this massive borrowing from Chinese.
Hiragana is used mostly to denote the endings of verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and honorifics,
particles, and conjunctions. It is the carrier of the grammar of the language. As mentioned before,
katakana is used for words that cannot be represented by kanji. Hiragana is seldom used to write
out the language, except in children’s books or other places where the reader or writer might not
know the correct reading of the kanji for a word.
Since the oral use of the language usually precedes the written, we may assume that for many
Japanese speakers, the three different forms of notation do not affect the way that the words are
conceptualized or spoken. However, since the katakana notation for most of the words borrowed
from European languages appears different to the eye from the kanji and hiragana, it is easy to see
why English speakers and well-educated Japanese with a background in English might consider the
use of loan words to be a bastardization of English.
In order to make this paper easier to read, the terms‘gairaigo’,‘kanji’,‘hiragana’, and
‘katakana’will not be underlined since they are used so frequently throughout the paper. Also,
when not notated, the gairaigo word will have been derived from English. The gairaigo words to be
explained are presented in capitals.
In the interest of making the pronunciation of the gairaigo words more accessible to the non-
Japanese speaking, English reader, a long‘e’sound has been rendered as‘EI’and a long‘o’
sound has been rendered as‘OU’instead of the more conventional method of using the same
letter twice, i.e., EE and OO, since such notation would cause the English-only, phonologically
Gairaigo-Remodelling Language to Fit Japanese
89
unaware reader to pronounce the words in a very different manner than a Japanese speaker would.
Today there are thousands of gairaigo in Japanese, so many that it is very difficult to categorize
them. It is helpful to review the history of gairaigo. Ignoring the first massive borrowing from
Chinese, the first gairaigo were from Portuguese. The Portuguese arrived in Japan in 1549 and
stayed until 1638. It was a time when the world was being explored by the Portuguese, Spanish,
English, and the Dutch. Columbus had discovered the Americas (for the Europeans, at least,) and
with this discovery, had discovered many foods which were native to the Americas: squash,
tomatoes, many kinds of beans, corn, and so on. These foods were introduced all over the world by
the Portuguese and the Dutch. Among some that made their way to Japan were potatoes, corn, and
squash. However, the Japanese were not aware of the American source of these foods and named
them according to the direction from which the sailors had come. Potatoes became JAGAIMO -
‘Jakarta roots’, corn became TOMOROKOSHI, the TO meaning China, so‘Chinese corn’, and
squash became KABOCHA,‘Southern squash’, or‘Cambodia squash’, depending on the source.
The Portuguese also introduced a kind of cake reputedly originating from the Castile region of
Spain, and so which was called KASUTERA, and a kind of deep-fried fish, TEMPURA, from
‘tempurado’, which has become a representative Japanese dish. The Portuguese also introduced an
item - which was to contribute to the bad health of the Japanese people and to the coffers of the
present-day government - tobacco, or TABAKO.
Along with foods, new methods of weaving and making cloth were introduced. Since there were
no expressions for these, the names were borrowed from Portuguese or Dutch.