Japanese Is Affecting the English Lexicon in New Ways

Japan Times ^ | DAN GRUNEBAUM

[dfwgator]

I watch Korean dramas and they use words from us like : kiss, okay, coffee, (pronounced kopee), date ( like the courting gesture, etc., because they that is what they like about us.

And my favorite...."Fighting!"

[DJ Taylor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mVqaISjMEs

[musicman]

Help FR Continue the Conservative Fight!
Your Monthly and Quarterly Donations
Help Keep FR In the Battle!

Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!

[captain_dave]

I think most of this is transient word fashion. Food aficionados like to pretend that Japanese cuisine has this mysterious fifth flavor that western cooking lacks, called “umami”. But this is rubbish. Western tastes have always had it: it’s called “savory”. Also using “origami” to describe a complex molecular shape, instead of “enfolded”, will lead to future readers scratching their heads and searching a future Wikipedia for clarification. Words go in and out of fashion; an educated slang.

[chajin]

It is simply the opening of a two-way street, that for generations was a one-way street. English loanwords have been flooding the Japanese language since before WWII, for much of the 20th century and into this one. One way to notice this historically is to recognize that most inventions prior to 1920 have Japanese words, while most afterward have English loanwords.

For example, "telephone" in Japanese is denwa or literally "electrical talking," and "automobile" is jidosha, or literally "byitself-moving-vehicle," but "radio" is rajio ("ji" being the closest sound to the "di" which doesn't exist in Japanese), and "television" is terebi, a truncating of terebishion, or "television" as mangled into Japanese syllables.

And truncating is a common loanword practice in Japan: "sexual harassment" is sekuhara, using the first two syllables of each word.

[katana]

Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Maybe you were thinking of the song Sukiyaki? Japanese title was really translated as "I look up when I walk" and was sung in one of their most popular movies of the 1960's. But the song became a hit record over here under the name of what was them about the only Japanese dish any Americans had ever heard of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35DrtPlUbc

[x]

I first heard the word "skosh" in a Woody Allen movie, as in "Move the car up a skosh, so I can pump the gas."

From the context, it sounded like it was some old American word that survived in the backwoods from the earliest days of the country.

Actually it comes from the Japanese sukoshi and was introduced into English after WWII.

[forgotten man]

The Japanese use many English language words in their language, but they use Japanese rules to pronounce the verbs. Also, all Japanese words end in a vowel of the consonant “n”.
There are no accents on any syllables.

to a let u is toilet or restrom
po ta to frenchu is french fries
ham bur guru is hamburger
car kir u is call girl (high priced prostitute)
ta baw ko is tabacco or cigarettes.

Ah so. Japanese velly easy.

[DJ Taylor]

I would like to blame it on my computer, but it was me who made an error in cut-and- paste.

I meant to post, Akatombo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mVqaISjMEs

[knarf]

Couldn’t be any worse than the English (?) ScoobyDoo taught our kids 30 years ago.

[Windflier]

"automobile" is jidosha, or literally "byitself-moving-vehicle,"

It's funny to read a literal translation like that, but virtually every non-English language was forced to adopt English words, or create unwieldy approximations to describe late 20th century technology.

[ADemocratNoMore]

Works both ways - The original version of Senbonzakura done by the Queen of the Vocaloids, Hatsuen Miku...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-B8LnBNwO8

Next, the traditional interpretation of the rock version of a traditional style Japanese song that actually was just written a few years ago...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWCV1vfN6-s

Followed by the Senbonzakura - cover by Lindsey Stirling...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-wEAeNcA_A

And finally the rock version of the song by the Wagakki Band using traditional instruments, (really good !)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_xTet06SUo

Both cultures borrowing from each other in so many ways as well as the mixture of modern and traditional.

Quite frankly I think it’s great.

[KarlInOhio]

Made even funnier that we had to swipe a mish-mash of Greek and Latin to create "automobile".

[Zeppo]

I haven’t noticed a tsunami of Japanese loanwords becoming accepted as English...

[dfwgator]

[elteemike]

One Japanese word I like is “mokusatsu”, which loosely means to kill (figuratively, a stupid idea for example) by simply ignoring it, or treating it with silent contempt...

So, I suggest we all “mokusatsu” everything the Dim-o-KKKrats think do and say from now on...

[doorgunner69]

Unless I missed it, they left out Kamikaze, seppuku, harikari.........

[YogicCowboy]

Left-Think:

If you emulate, it is cultural appropriation.

If you do not emulate, it is ethnic discrimination.

One thing you can say for leftists: The fix is always in with them.

[piasa]

Thanks, I had no idea boondock sprang from Tagalog, just assumed it might have had something to do with frontiersman Daniel Boone.
My brothers used to call boots boondockers as I recall.

[lulu16]

You are welcome. The correct pronunciation is more like “bun Duk.” My dad would say that as a boy he would ride the carabao to the bonduks (rice fields ).

Happy New Year