Document 30460

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Wor/dOi~/is/ies.Vol.14.No. l.pp.67-76. IYY.5.
English loanwords in Japanese
ABSTRACT As a result of the economic, political and cultural influence of Britain and the US, and the
emergence of English as an international language, many world languages have absorbed loanwords from
English, especially during the twentieth century. Japanese contains thousands of such borrowings, many of
which are well-established and in universal use. A domestic phonetic script is available to both represent
and distinguish non-native sounds. This paper outlines the historical and cultural contexts of borrowing
from English into Japanese, processes of nativization, and functions served by English loanwords. Orthographical, phonological, morphological, semantic and syntactic modifications to borrowed words aid their
assimilation into the native language. However, linguistic and cultural borrowing is to some extent kept
separate from native language and culture, resulting in a JapaneseNestern dichotomy in Japanese life and
Contacts with European powers from the sixteenth century resulted in loanwords being
borrowed from several Western languages into Japanese. Japan’s first contact with a
Western country was when Portuguese traders and missionaries came to Japan in the midsixteenth century. The European loanwords therefore came from Portuguese. Some have
not endured to the present - for example, the former word for glass bidoro (from Portuguese ‘vidro’) became replaced by gurusu (from Dutch). However, many remain in universal use; examples are pun (bread), tubuko (cigarette), and many words relating to
Christianity,which was introduced into Japan by the Portuguese. Later in the sixteenth century, the Spanish were in Japan for a few years, lending a small number of words from their
language. The English were in Japan for only ten years (1613-1623) and there are no
records of words from English entering the Japanese language during that time. The
Western nation which has had longest contact with Japan is Holland. The Dutch arrived in
the early seventeenth century, and were allowed to continue trading with Japan even during
the period of national seclusion from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth
century, contributing a large number of words to the Japanese vocabulary, many of which
remain in use. Examples of such words are kohl(coffee), biru (beer) and many words relating to medicine and science,which the Japanese actively studied from the Dutch during that
Japan’s isolation from the West was ended when US warships arrived in what is now
Tokyo harbour in the mid-nineteenth century. The nation was forced to accept American
demands to open trade and diplomatic relations with the US. In subsequent years, Japan
signed trade treaties with several Western nations. In 1868, a new government was formed,
the Emperor was restored as the symbolic Head of State, and the name of the era changed
to ‘Meiji’(Enlightened Rule). In the same year, a Charter Oath was issued, declaring that
‘knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundation of
Imperial Rule’. The principle of modernizing society while maintainingJapanese values was
expressed in the slogan ‘Western technology, Japanese spirit’. Japan initiated and
*Department of English, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Toyama City, Japan.
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Gillian Kay
effectively pursued a policy of rapid modernization that would allow the nation to compete
with foreign industrial and military powers on equal terms. The policy of isolation from
Western culture had quickly been replaced by the resolution to learn as much as possible
from Western countries.Japan began intensive study of contemporary Western science and
technology, and related terminologies were constructed or imported (as loan translations
or borrowings). The subsequent adoption of many Western customs and aspects of its
culture was accompanied and aided by an influx of foreign terms into the everyday
language, mainly from German, French and English. Foreign culture was studied from the
Western nations which were considered to excel most in certain fields; therefore, medicine
was studied from the Germans, commerce from the British, and cuisine and fashion from
the French. During the late 1860s and early 1870s,Japan’s elite class began to adopt certain
aspects of the Western lifestyle, such as in dress, dining and home furnishing. During the
Taisho era (1 9 12-1 926) Western ideas and philosophy came to be accepted and admired
by some of the country’s leading intellectuals. The general population also began to
gradually add certain aspects of Western culture and customs to their traditional lifestyle.
In the 1930s, a government policy of resistance to imported foreign culture led to the
official exclusion of foreign words from the language during the war years. However, during
the period of US occupation for the six years after the war, the rebuilding of Japanese
society was overseen and greatly influenced by the US. Japan once again made concerted
efforts to Westernize. Previously banned words were reinstated in the language, and the
‘boom’ in adopting foreign culture which became renewed in that period has continued to
this day. The study ‘Nihon no Sankotosho’ (Reference Books on Japan’), published by
Nihon Toshokan Ky6kai (Japan Association of Libraries) in 1980, showed that over half
the 25,000 loanwords in Kadokawa’s Loanword Dictionary entered the language after
World War Two, most of them from English. Since 1945, aided by an expanding mass
media, thousands of English loanwords have been absorbed into Japanese.
When elements of a foreign culture and language are ‘borrowed’ into the culture and
langauge of another, they became adapted to their new cultural and linguistic context. Most
English words taken into Japanese show orthographical, phonological, structural or
semantic integration into the native linguistic system. Some distinguishing features of these
processes of nativization are described below.
Early foreign loans were assigned Chinese characters according to their pronunciation
and/or meaning. For example, the word for Asia, ash, can be written either phonetically
using katakana, or with three Chinese characters originally used to represent the syllables a,
ji and a. Chinese-derived root words are still available as a resource for creating new terms,
in much the same way that English can construct new words from Greek or Latin elements,
but it has become more usual to simply transcribe the word into katakana according to its
sound. Almost all loanwords are now written in the distinctive Japanese phonetic script,
katakana. Examples of borrowed words given in this paper are romanized for convenience,
using the ‘Hepburn’ system of romanization developed by the American doctor and
missionary, J. C. Hepburn in the nineteenth century, and now in standard use.
Generally, there is consensus over the katakana spelling of loanwords, though some
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English loanwords in Japanese
English word has given rise to two forms with different meanings, such as airon (a pressing
iron) and ‘aim’ (a golf iron). The transcription of the former is unusual, as it was apparently
influenced by the spelling, not the pronunciation, of the English word. It also sometimes
happens that two different English words give rise to the same transcription; thus, both
‘bath’and ‘bus’become basu, and ‘grammar’and ‘glamour’ are both transcribed as gurumi.
The existence of a domestic phonetic script gives an immediate capacity to absorb any
foreign word into the Japanese linguistic system, even on a temporary basis. One use of
katakana is to show the approximate pronunciation of non-loan foreign words, such as in
the study of languages and the transcription of foreigners’names into Japanese. In this case,
the borrowed words undergo a simple phonetic modification. However, loanwords which
enter the everyday Japanese vocabulary are open to additional types of linguistic change,
which are described below. Such change is more liable to occur than with native words,
whose pronunciation, meaning and usage have been fixed in the language by centuries of
Phonologica1 change
Speakers of one language often have difficulty reproducing the sounds of another
language which do not exist in their own. The borrowing of lexical items containing such
sounds usually entails adaptation of their pronunciation. An example from English is the
anglicization of the ‘r’ sound in word such as ‘restaurant’borrowed from French. Similarly,
most foreign words inevitably undergo phonetic change when transcribed into Japanese.
The Japanese sound system is based on a pool of about 100 syllables. Apart from five
pure vowel sounds (aiue and 0)and the ‘n’sound, all others are consonant-vowel syllables.
Borrowed words are adapted to this system. Consonant clusters in English (except those
beginning with ‘n’) are broken up with vowels, as in fekunosuforesu (technostress), and
English loanwords ending in a consonant other than ‘n’ must end in a vowel, as in beddo
(bed). Some vowel and consonant sounds in English which do not exist in Japanese are
represented by the nearest Japanese equivalents; for example, ‘th is usually represented by
‘s’ or ‘z’, and the ‘schwa’ sound which is so common in English is replaced in Japanese by
one of the Japanese vowels, such as ‘a’.Examples of phonological changes in English consonants are given in the table below:
Sound change
ji di
th s
si + shi
zi ji
fo ho
However, a remarkable development in modern Japanese is the general and official
(1980s) acceptance of new syllables created specifically to enable words of foreign origin to
be pronounced closer to their original sound. Most of these have become popularized only
during the last few years, and therefore particularly affect the spelling and pronunciation of
words which have entered the langauge recently. Some are rarely used. Examples of loanwords using these special syllables are given in the table below, with the new syllables
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Gillian Kay
Some loanwords are initials written in Roman script; for example OL (from office lady - a
female clerical worker) and CD. These are always pronounced however, according to the
Japanese pronunciation of the English letters, in this case, 6eru and shidi. Acronyms, too,
are pronounced as Japanese words; for example, GATT is gatto.
Morphological change - abbreviation and combination
The need to add extra vowels to Enghsh words to accommodate them to the syllabic
structure of Japanese results in some of them becoming very long in the borrowing. Loanwords are often abbreviated, either on or after entering the language. Usually this involves
backclipping, where the last part of a word is omitted. Blending is also common - the combination of abbreviated words to produce new terms which do not exist in English. Some
examples of backclipping and blending are given below.
Backclipping of a word :
Backclipping of second word in phrase :
Backclipping of first word in phrase :
Backclipping of both words in phrase :
akuseru (accel[erator])
masukomi (mass commu[nication])
omuraisu (ome[letl rice)
pansuto (pan[tyl stolcking])
Front-clipping is rare; examples are nisu ([varlnish), raoruketro (towell[ing]
and homu ([platjform).
+ [blanlket)
New combinations of words. There are many unique combinations of English words.
These neologisms are known in Japanese as wasei eigo (literally ‘English which has become
opun k i
pepi tesuto
6 d i sutoppu
hai sensu
chiku dansu
baton tacchi
play guide
one piece
open car
paper test
order stop
high sense
cheek dance
baton touch
ticket office
written test
last orders
good taste in fashion
slow dance
passing the baton
There are also a large number of loanblends; combinations of words from two different
denshi renji
denwa bokkusu
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J tooth +brush
roll Portuguese pi0
J electronic range
J telephone box
J nostalgic melo[dyj
bread roll
microwave oven
telephone box
nostalgic melody
English loanwords in Japanese
carbon J paper
cuffs Portuguese botio
J morning sham[poo]
J butterfly necktie
J circle Dutch gom
kafusu botan
carbon paper
morning shampoo
rubber band
Many words borrowed from basic English vocabulary occur only in compound phrases,
their corresponding Japanese word being used to represent the meanings of the words on
their own. Examples are the word parts deriving from man, woman, boy, girl, baby, car,
home, air, tree, sun, food, etc. Examples of words incorporating these basic items are;
sururimun (salaried man), kyuriu imun (career woman), bc5ijkrendo (boyfriend), erebeti
giru (elevator girl), bebibeddo (baby bed = cot), puroki (patrol car), hornusurei
(homestay), eukon (air conditioner), kurisurnusu fsurii (Christmas tree), sungurusu (sunglasses) and fisuro f i d o (fast food). The loan item f i d o , for example, is never used on its
own to refer to food in general.
Semantic change
Borrowed words inevitably acquire culture-specific meanings, to varying degrees. It
would be difficult to find a borrowed word which has retained exactly the same meaning or
context of use as its word of origin. Even a straightforward loan such as konpyiri (computer) has acquired a different context -Japanese computers have bilingual Roman/
katakana keyboards and a Japanese-language operating system.
The extent of change in meaning varies from a slight change in nuance, to a completely
different meaning. Some examples of the latter are given below:
front [desk]
high-class block of flats
reception desk
playing cards
buffet meal
thermos flask
sticky label
Some loan phrases have a different meaning from their original, possibly because the component words were taken in separately, and recombined by chance. Examples are moningu
sibisu (morning service) which in Japanese means a set breakfast served by a restaurant,
shc5ro kart0 (short cut) which is a short haircut, and roreningupunrsu (training pants) which
in Japanese refers to sweat pants.
in their language of origin, or in their Japanese equivalent term. Examples are jkirumu (a
roll of film), ekisutoru (a film extra), mishin (only a sewing machine), rsuna (tinned, not
fresh tuna), and purin (referring only to caramel custard pudding). Another very common
type of semantic change is where the loanword denotes Western style; the following words
refer only to Western-style versions; resurorun (restaurant), kuppu (cup), rebunt (table).
Foods which have a Japanese name may be called by their foreign-derived name when prepared Western-style;the Japanese for apple is ‘ringo’, but apple pie is uppunt pui.
The existence of words borrowed from a variety of European languages sometimes gives
rise to a choice of synonyms and collocations. Words from different languages,but with the
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Gillian Kay
same Latin or Germanic root, have sometimes acquired variant meanings, such as gurasu
(from English glass: a drinking glass) and garasu (from Dutch ‘glas’: glass as a material);
kappu (from English ‘cup’:a cup) and koppu (from Dutch ‘kop’:a tumbler).
Syntactical change
Loanwords are easily incorporated into Japanese sentence structure, for example, by
affixing Japanese grammatical elements. The paradigm ‘this is a pen’, used to teach basic
English, translates into Japanese as ‘kore wa pen desu’ (Japanese this+ subject
particle+pen+ Japanese is). Most loanwords are nouns, which do not take inflectional
endings. However, many are used as verbs with the addition of Japanese ‘suru’ (roughly
meaning ‘to do’) as in ‘shoppingu SUN’(to do some shopping). Loanwords which are
adjectives take Japanese adjectival endings, for example ereganto-nu (elegant), and when
used as adverbs take the adverbial ending ‘ni’, as in ereganto-ni (elegantly). Loan words fit
into the Japanese syntactical structure as if they were native words, being ascribed particles
such as subject and object markers where necessary. An exception is when a whole phrase is
borrowed, as in the expression redl fusuto (ladie[s] first) and man tsli man (man-to-man,
one-to-one). In rare cases, such as in an advertising slogan, a whole sentence can be written
using English loanwords in the order they would appear in English.
Changes in form and meaning
Words often take on adapted meanings to serve the needs of a changing society. Loanwords are especially open to modification, both on entering the language, and with time.
One reason is that the meaning or usage of a word in its original language may not be fully
understood; nor need it be, as loanwords are used without reference to their source words.
Another is that, with words of foreign origin, there is no deep cultural motivation to protect
their original meanings. The flexibility of form and meaning of loanwords enables them to
adapt easily to the structure of the host language, and current trends and needs.
Foreign words written in Japanese script represent one interface between Western and
Japanese society. The existence of katakana facilitates the introduction of foreign words,
both linguistically and culturally.
Linguistically - the practical use of katakana
Using a domestic phonetic script to transcribe foreign words is clearly more convenient
than creating new combinations of Chinese characters, which would require a consensus or
official approval before they could come into general use. It gives any individual the ability
and freedom to write an English word in native script, without having to assign or learn
characters for it, nor know its spelling in the original. Transcription is based on the sound of
the English word, and any foreign word can therefore easily be transcribed into katakana.
Thus, Japanese can write down a foreigner’s name immediately by its sound, and, in
foreign-language dictation exercises, students may write what they hear first in katakana,
and then transcribe back into the foreign language at leisure, after thinking about the
possible meanings of the words and their spellings. Practically, there is no linguistic barrier
to the absorption into Japanese of words from other languages.
A rapidly developing society constantly requires new vocabulary. When this is taken pre0 Basil Blackwell Ltd. 1995
English loanwords in Japanese
dominantly from other languages, the subtleties of native words can be protected. Modern
Japanese society is searching for ways to express itself while maintaining Japanese traditions, no matter what the degree of contact with Western culture. Incomplete linguistic
assimilation of foreign loans helps allow Japanese traditional concepts and culture to be
In many aspects of daily living, Japanese people can freely choose a traditional Japanese
or Western lifestyle. An example of this distinct separation of the two cultures is the
Japanese home, which normally has both Japanese- and Western-style rooms, clearly
defined by their structure and furnishings. A house may be basically Japanese style, but
have one or two Western-style rooms; allowing its occupants to enjoy aspects of a Western
lifestyle within a basically Japanese living arrangement. There are also homes which are
basically Western-style, but have one or two Japanese-style rooms. However, the principle
is the same - a clear compartmentalization of the two cultures. The language used to
describe the fittings and furnishings of the two types of room is different; Western-style
rooms, for example, having curtains (kiten), while Japanese-style rooms usually having
paper sliding screens, shoji, at the window. Similarly, the menu of a Western-style
restaurant or coffee shop may be written almost entirely in katakanized loanwords, whilst
the menu of a Japanese-style restaurant will consist mainly of native words written in
Chinese characters.
Culturally - the Japanese/Western dichotomy
The katakana symbols derive from parts of Chinese characters, and are immediately
recognizable in Japanese writing by their bold and simple lines. Katakana therefore
physically separates loanwords from those of native or ancient Chinese origin by representing them in a conspicuously different script. Keeping foreign words compartmentalized in
this way allows the language to gain maximum benefit from their addition to the lexical pool,
while protecting the native vocabulary from change. The orthographical separation of loanwords thus enables Japan to develop a Western vocabulary to accompany and assist its
Westernization, without threatening the basic integrity of the native language.
Although loanwords are adapted to the Japanese sound system, many ark recognizable
as foreign-derived on hearing, for various reasons; (i) they may contain certain sequences of
syllables which are not common, or unknown in Japanese, (ii) the word may contain a larger
number of syllables than is common for Japanese words, (iii) the words may contain nonnative syllables created specifically to allow foreign words to be rendered in a form nearer
to their original (described earlier in this paper, under Phonological change).
English loanwords are therefore visually, and to some extent phonologically, recognized
as different from the native vocabulary. This ability for loanwords to be so easily contained
may be one factor why there has been very little attempt to limit their number.
Westernization which exists alongside the home culture, rather than replace it, allows
Japanese people a chance to experience aspects of another culture while still having full
access to their own.
Transference of loan words to Japanese English
The existence of a large number of loanwords derived from English provides a Japanese
person, regardless of English proficiency, with a resource for communicating with English
speakers who do not know Japanese. To what extent, however, are these words comprehensible to non-Japanese? The adaptations in pronunciation, form and meaning described
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Gillian Kay
above can be a cause of misunderstanding, or non-understanding, of lexical items. However, there is no doubt that a large corpus of English-derived words within one’s own language has the potential to aid communicationwith English speakers, in a similar way that a
native speaker of English can often comprehend words in the romance languages such as
French, due to their similarities to Latin or French-derived words in English.
However, the influence of English loanwords in Japanese on understanding or production of English can also be disadvantageous. There is a general awareness amongst
Japanese people that English loans differ from their derivative words, but individuals may
not be aware in detail as to how. Examples of such information about loanwords are:
a) whether it is a loanword at all; especially when it is written in Chinese characters, and has a
native-like pronunciation
b) the language the loan comes from
c) the word the loan comes from
d) the spelling, pronunciation or meaning of the loan in its original language
As a result, there is often transference from loan usage to English, leading to incorrect
expressions in Japanese English. Typical examples are, ‘I have to go to my arbeit after
classes finish’ from the word ambaito (German ‘Arbeit’) meaning a part-time job in
Japanese, and ‘Do you live in a mansion? from the loan manshon (English ‘mansion’),
meaning a block of flats in Japanese and ‘He works as a cock in that restaurant’ from the
loan kokku (Dutch ‘kok’) and ‘I’ll meet you at the front of the hotel’ meaning ‘at the reception desk’, which is furonto in Japanese.
Thefunction of English loanwords in the Japanese language
a) Many English loanwords name imported things or ideas which did not exist in Japan or
Japanese culture previously, such as terminology for Western sports or fashion. The adoption
of Western ideas has also been accompanied by loanwords, such as puraibashi(privacy), which
does not have an equivalent term in Japanese.
b) Loanwords are often associated with a sophisticated, Western lifestyle, and may be used in
place of Japanese words of equivalent meaning because of their foreign appeal. Their modem
image often makes them preferable to domestic equivalents, where these exist
c) The existence of many loanwords which have Japanese equivalents provides an alternative tone
of discourse. The use of English loanwords is not only a reflection of modem Japanese culture,
but also helps serve it by creating a modem atmosphere. They are especially prevalent in
advertising, product names and youth culture.
d) Loanwords are sometimes used for special effect, especially in writing, where the angular katakana script catches the eye, and the ‘foreign’words catch the attention.
e) In commerce they can be of practical use, not only in advertising and marketing, but also to aid
exports; for example, the creation of the name ‘Walkman’has, in addition to giving the product a
modem image for Japanese people, perhaps also helped with advertising the product overseas.
9 With rapid international information exchange such as news reports, and competition and
cooperation in technology, the availability of a common vocabulary is helpful.
g) English loans do not have as deep undertones of meaning as native words, and can be used more
Japanese. Loanwords can have euphemistic value, such as in phrases containing the word shiruba to denote old-age, in expressions such as shirubi shim (silver seat), a seat for elderly
people by the door on public transport.
There is a tendency for the use of loanwords to approach the English usage over time for example, automatic steeringhransmission in a car used to be described by the ‘made-in
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English loanwords in Japanese
Japan’ term no kurucchi (no clutch), but this term was replaced by otorna (from an
abbreviation of ‘automatic’). Those with a good knowledge of English tend to use some
loanwords with meanings more closely approaching those of the original.
English words can easily be borrowed, as they are in the names of companies or products,
as with an accompanying katakana reading, customers can read and pronounce them,
although often to an approximation of the original pronunciation. Sometimes a loanword
and its derivation appear together, such as in a poster headed with the English word ‘Bargain Sale’ accompanied by bcigen sent in katakana.
New foreign loans quickly become popularized by Japan’s highly developed mass media.
Japan has a highly literate population, a very large number of weekly and monthly publications, almost everyone has a television, and there is a wide variety of goods in the shops.
There are annually published books of telephone directory size explaining terms which
have recently entered the language. So new words quickly become known, and easily evolve
with changing needs.
Whereas in the Meiji era Western lifestyles were adopted only by the elite, now they are
available to everyone, at all levels of society. Whereas English as a foreign language still
tends to be spoken mainly by the intellectualelite, the use of loanwords from English is not a
class marker. They are used across all society, not as a separate language, but as part of the
native language.
The loanword vocabulary, mainly from English ,continues to expand and evolve, serving
the changing linguistic needs of modern Japanese society, and fulfilling an essential role in
the development of contemporary Japanese language and culture.
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