Another type of "Japanglish"

Sakura

I received many positive reactions to my “Japanglish” post earlier, so I thought I would write Part II of it!

Japanese borrowed a lot of English words and we write them in katakana and pronounce them in ways that fit the Japanese phonetic system. For example, we say レモン remon (lemon), ドア doa (door), オーブン oobun (oven), テニス tenisu (tennis), etc.

Sometimes, when we feel that some English word is too long, we would shorten it for convenience.

For example, we say:

• ノート nooto (notebook) instead of “nootobukku”
• デパート depaato (department store) instead of “depaatomentosutoa”
• ビル biru (building) instead of “birudingu”
• エアコン eakon (air conditioner) instead of “eakondishonaa”
• アパート apaato (apartment) instead of “apaatomento”
• ハンカチ hankachi (handkerchief) instead of “hankachiifu”
• インフレ infure (inflation) instead of “infureeshon”
• インフラ infura (infrastructure) instead of “infurasutorakuchaa”

The above “short versions” have been really recognized as complete/whole words in Japanese. So when you say these words, do not use the long, true-to-English versions, as people may not recognize what you mean.

So, even though above katakana words came from authentic English, the Japanese modified them and the results are a kind of “Japanglish”, I would say.

There are also cases where you have a choice between the short version and the long version. But a lot of times, people just use the short version for convenience. Here are some examples:

• コンビニ konbini vs. コンビニエンスストア konbiniensusutoa (convenience store)
• チョコ choko vs. チョコレート chokoreeto (chocolate)
• リモコン rimokon vs. リモートコントローラー rimootokontorooraa (remote controller)
• パソコン pasokon vs. パーソナルコンピューター paasonarukonpyuutaa (personal computer)
• ロス rosu vs. ロサンゼルス rosanzerusu (Los Angeles)
• アメフト amefuto vs. アメリカンフットボール amerikanfuttobooru ((American) football)
• デジカメ dejikame vs. デジタルカメラ dejitarukamera (digital camera)
• スマホ sumaho vs. スマートフォン sumaatofon (smart phone)

Notice how the abbreviation styles in English and Japanese are different. For example, in English, we abbreviate “personal computer” as PC; “Los Angeles” as L.A. - we often take the initials. But in Japanese, we usually take the first few “moras”. Moras are like syllables, but just a different kind of phonological unit. English has syllables but Japanese has moras. I’ll talk about moras on another post soon, so stay tuned! 

Roe

I'm a little confused: surely Japan had words for 'chocolate' and 'apartment' before there was an English word.  Am I mistaken?

Sakura

Actually, chocolates were brought over to Japan along with the name at the same time. 

When it comes to apartments, notebooks, handkerchiefs, and such, Japanese had their own traditional versions of them, which had different forms from the ones we know of in the modern world. So the pure Japanese words for them refer specifically to their old traditional forms.

For instance, look up the word "tenugui" on the web. (Actually, do an image-search.) You'll see traditional Japanese handkerchiefs.

Volk83

One of my favorites is arbeito-part time work...even though it come from the German Arbeit, but I guess you can make the argument that English is from the Germanic Family...so I guess it does work:D

Anthony

Sakura

Yes, most foreign words we use are from either Chinese or English, but occasionally we use words from other languages. アルバイト arubaito, which came from the German word that means "work", is a very good example of that! Thanks!

Let me also give you some katakana words that came from French. 

• ピエロ piero - from the French "pierrot", which means "clown".
• ムートン muuton - from the French "mouton", which means "sheepskin"
• アンケート ankeeto - from the French "enquete", which means "questionnaire"

Volk83

Pretty intersting stuff. I knew alot Japanese loan words were from Chinese and some from English. but was surprised about the French words. Oh speaking of shortend form of English words one I just found and like is カーボ short for Carbon Fiber.

Sakura

I think that'd be カーボン kaabon, actually. The ン n might be too subtle to hear, but I wouldn't think it's dropped even one tries to make the word short. 

Volk83

Oh ok Sakura, that makes sense if its too subtle to hear...but I noticed when I was in Tokyo that some vowels become devoiced(to me at least) I stayed in Asakusabashi. But I heard it spoke as Aksasabashi...but I digress lol

Christopher

Sakura can answer this with complete authority, but if I remember my days from Phonology, the Japanese u is voiceless. Maybe there's a process of devoicing other vowels. I must have missed that lecture!!

Sakura

Not always, but the Japanese /u/ and /i/ can be voiceless, especially in fast speech. Volk83 san, I'm sure what you've heard was actually ASAKSABASHI (instead of ASASABASHI), because a consonant will never drop. And get this -- Asakusabashi is my hometown, so I know it! (^-^) 

Volk83

Sakura san!! Yes you are right!! I was really surprised because in my Japanese class,this was many moons ago, that all the syllables are pronounced. Of course you can here this everytim I went on the Toei and got off you always heard the difference between the English and the Japanese ^^