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Intermediate Japanese - Free Online Course
GAIRAIGO
外来語
foreign loanword
Practically all languages import loanwords from other tongues, and Japanese is no exception in this regard. The Japanese, however, have a passion for loan words that is perhaps unmatched by any other nation.
Most languages employ loanwords to express concepts for which they have no serviceable equivalents. In English, for example, the words déjà vu and Schadenfreude are borrowed from French and German, respectively. The first of these, déjà vu, means “the illusion that one has already experienced something actually being experienced for the first time.” The definition of Schadenfreude is “pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.” Neither of these words has any real equivalent in English, so they perform an indispensable service in our language.
The Japanese take borrowing a step farther, and actually import foreign words for concepts that their own language already handles efficiently. For example, the Japanese have a perfectly good “pure Japanese” word for the concept of “business” (shōbai / 商売), but they also use an English loanword, bijinesu / ビジネス. Similarly, the Japanese word for “milk”, gyūnyū / 牛乳, suffers from no deficiencies that require the use of the loanword miruku / ミルク, but the latter has been imported anyway.
A Long History of Loanwords
The history of borrowing at will from foreign languages has a long history in Japan. The first period of linguistic importation occurred during the seventh century, when Japan was absorbing Chinese language and culture. Many of these early Sino-Japanese loanwords form the backbone of modern Japanese vocabulary. The word cha / 茶 (“tea”), for example, is almost identical to a modern Chinese word with the same meaning: chá / 茶.
The next wave of borrowing began during the late 1500s, when Portuguese, and later Spanish, missionaries became active in Japan. Remnants of this period include the modern Japanese word for bread, pan / パン, which readers who speak Portuguese or Spanish will immediately recognize. Dutch loanwords also poured in, as Dutch traders established commercial bases in the country.
Japan was closed to foreign visitors throughout most of the Edo Period (1603 to 1853), by rule of the Tokugawa shoguns. But a small contingent of Dutch merchants remained near the port of Nagasaki. Moreover, the Tokugawa shoguns eventually permitted the importation of foreign scientific and technical texts. Most of these books were written in Dutch. Not surprisingly, the books resulted in more Dutch loanwords.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Japan was open to foreigners, and the government actively encouraged the adoption of Western technology and culture. French, German, and some English loanwords entered the Japanese lexicon in rapid succession. The Japanese word abekku / アベック, for example, is a play on the French word avec. Abekku refers to a young couple, or “a young man with his girlfriend.” The Japanese also modified the German word Arbeit (“work”) into arubaito / アルバイト. (The Japanese word refers not to work in general, but specifically to part-time work.)
Given the close connection between Japan and the U.S. during the postwar era, English has been the most common source of gairaigo over the last sixty years. The scope of English loanwords is vast: risaikuru / リサイクル (“recycle”), sābisu / サービス (“service”), kyanpeen / キャンペーン (“campaign”), etc.
Gairaigo borrowed from European languages are written in katakana, one of the two Japanese syllabaries. It was once fashionable to assign phonetically appropriate kanji to loanwords, but this practice has all but died out. Moreover, the influx of Chinese loanwords is practically nonexistent today, so very few new words are entering the Japanese language in the form of Chinese characters.
Gairaigo a Source of Controversy
Gairaigo fall in and out of fashion with amazing speed. Some words have a shelf life of less than a decade. Many gairaigo are restricted to a particular demographic: hoodlums, teenagers, engineers, etc. Although opinions vary, more than a few Japanese scholars regard the arbitrary and excessive use of loanwords as improper Japanese.
(To put the last point in perspective, consider the recent influx of Spanish loanwords into American English. If an American English-speaker says “I’ll do it pronto,” most of his listeners will understand what he means. However, pronto, being Spanish rather than English, would not be suitable for formal speech or writing. Moreover, there is no real need to use the word pronto—except for effect or ostentation—when the English word “quickly” exists.)
In some circles in Japan, the use of gairaigo is regarded as a mark of sophistication. Here again, there is a parallel in American English. During the 1920s, young sophisticates peppered their speech and writing with French. You will notice this trend if you read the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who began writing in the 1920s. Many of his stories contain ornamental French expressions in contexts where English words would have more than sufficed.
Examples of gairaigo:
Japanese Word
Meaning
Language of Origin
runpen / ルンペン
tramp; vagrant
German
sutairu / スタイル
style
English
hōmu peeji / ホームページ
homepage
English
hochikisu / ホチキス
stapler
German