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Xiayu Guo
Introduction
Many English loanwords can be found in modern Japanese. Typically, Japanese borrows
English phonology and form. The purpose of this paper is to identify the development the
English loan words in Japanese from the aspects of history, pronunciation and language
functions.
Japanese is a language that has a long history of borrowing. When Japanese learners
study Japanese vocabulary, they may find there are a lot of Chinese characters in it or that the
pronunciations of some words are like English. These loanwords are known as gairaigo in
Japanese. Japanese has developed through contact with other languages, most significantly in the
late 4th century AD. At that time, Japanese language had no written form, so it adopted Chinese
characters for writing (Olah, 2007, p. 177). Since the 1500s, Japan began to interact with Europe;
Japanese speakers started to use European words in their language. Initially, loanwords came
from Portuguese after traders and missionaries from Portugal came to Japan in the 16th Century
During 1639-1858, some Dutch words that were related to medicine and machinery
began flowing into Japanese (Ohno, Matsumura, et al. 1970, cited in Yamasaki, 1994). However,
after Commodore Perry (1853-1854) arrived in Japan, English loanwords gradually replaced
Dutch (Yamasaki, 1994, p.136). Since 1854, English words have been mainly used in Japanese
Japan since the end of WWII. A report by the Japanese National Language Research Institute in
1964 found that of all the loanwords from western languages, 80.8% were English (Olah, 2007,
ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 3
p.178). English loanwords are indispensable in Japanese language, for instance, in modern
society, many bilingual signs can be found in Japan. In one study that looked at the language
used on Japanese shop signs in Seijo, Japan (MacGregor, 2003). Among the 120 signs, Japanese
was the dominant language, but other languages also appeared. The data were divided into three
groups: unilingual signs, bilingual signs and trilingual signs. Unilingual signs had three
categories: (1) Japanese in Kanji, (2) Japanese in Hiragana, Katakana and (3)Japanese in Roman
letters (43.3%), English (25.8%) and French (2.5%). Bilingual also had three categories: English
and Japanese (24.2%), French and Japanese (1.7%) and Danish and Japanese (0.8%). There were
two trilingual signs in English, French and Japanese (1.7%). The signs with foreign languages
The types of English loanwords in Japanese are nouns, adjectives and verbs. One of the
reasons why English words were introduced to Japan (in the 19th century) is because products,
materials, styles and ideas, which did not previously exist in Japan, such as skirt, jacket, belt and
model (Yamasaki, 1994, p.138) were popular in English speaking countries. It is convenient to
use these nouns directly. According to a survey of consciousness of fashion in Japan (Yamasaki,
1994, p.138), Japanese people thought fashion was born in Western Europe and the United
States. Even though new designs and concepts of fashion are popular in Japan, fashion itself is
still a product of the western countries. For instance, colors are important factors of fashion; in
other words, colors were originated from western countries, so most nouns of colors are
loanwords and they are expressed in Katakana. In addition to nouns, many adjectives are used.
Adjectives like simple, chic, elegant, handsome, and romantic are increasing just as the number
of English borrowed nouns are. Some English borrowed adjectives are assimilated into Japanese.
ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 4
Unlike English names of products and styles, which may never disappear as long as these
Even if there is a Japanese translation for an English loan adjective, sometimes it has a
peculiar meaning in Japanese (Yamasaki, 1994, p.139). For instance, the English loan adjective
nau-i is the combination of Japanese adjective morpheme i with now. It was first produced in the
form of nau-na, which is a combination of now and Japanese adjective morpheme na. During the
Vietnam War, young people in America used Freedom Now for opposing the war, and the
Japanese only used Freedom. They used now to mean new (Inagaki, 1988, cited in Yamasaki,
1994). First, they added na to now in English. Then, the word now-na was Japanized as nau-na.
Later, nau-na acquired different meaning as neat and cool. The form of nau-na was changed into
English loan verbs are fewer than nouns and adjectives in Japanese. When using English
loan verbs, the Japanese morpheme suru should be added at the end of verbs because suru means
do. In order to distinguish English loanwords and Japanese in Japanese language, Japanese
language is added this morpheme, such as chekku suru (check), apiiru suru (appeal), gaado suru
English and Japanese phonetic alphabet have to be illustrated. English and Japanese both have
vowels and consonants. It was mentioned that Japanese has fewer sounds than English; the most
Japanese has five basic vowels, usually referred to as short vowels. They are pronounced
as a, i, e, o, u. The pronunciation is close to the a in father, the ee in feet, the oo in mood, the e in
Dictionary (Nakao, 1995), they are all pronounced in a relatively short, clipped manner in
contrast to the so-called long vowels which are typically found in English, which are produced
by drawing out the sounds of the short vowels to approximately twice their normal length. The
vowel combinations, except the long vowel ii and ei, are pronounced as sequences of the two
vowels. Such vowel combinations are ai, au, oi, and ue sounds like eye, ow (in cow), oy (in boy)
The vowel u in the syllable su tends to be produced weakly or sometimes not at all before
some consonants. For example, sukoshi, which means a little in English, sounds like skoshi, as
well as in the polite copular desu and polite verb suffix masu. Similarly, In syllable shi, chi, hi, ki
Most Japanese consonants are pronounced like English letters, but there are some
The ts in the syllable tsu corresponds to nothing in English. It sounds like the ts in
The r is not like r in English. It sounds like l. Japanese has no l sound, but r is
The y that appears after some consonants is a glide between the consonant and following
vowel rather than a vowel as it sometimes is in English. For example, Tokyo has three
The n has two pronunciations. In na, ni, nu, ne and no, it is like n in English. The other is
Phonetic changes are very important because they reflect the essence of the native
language and the influence of loanwords on the native language. In Japanese language,
2consonant groups cannot be produced without putting vowels in them. Therefore, English
words that have few syllables can end up being expanded, requiring more sounds to produce the
Katakana equivalent in Japanese (Olah, 2007, p. 179). For example, cream-kurimu, steak-suteki,
and taxi-takushi. Some English words are very long, in order to save time when speaking, these
loanwords have been shortened (Olah, 2007, p.179), such as television-terebi, supermarket-supa,
There are other cases of adaptation involving deletion (Smith, 2006, p.67). Typically,
loanwords with deletion have doublet forms with epenthesis. There are some examples of
deletion with English-to-Japanese doublets (Miura, 1993, cited in Smith 2006, p.68):
oruraito.
cement-semento, roast-rosuto.
ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 7
skim-sukimu.
Additionally, during the process of adaptation, the diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ become the
long vowels /e:/ and /ɔ:/. For example, in grade-gureedo and coat-kooto. Some sounds that do
not exist in Japanese are replaced with close sounds: basic-beeshikku, music-myujikku, yellow-
Some English consonants do not have counterparts in Japanese. They are produced as
Japanese consonants with the same or similar place, voicing and manner, but there is an
exception. English consonant /v/ is pronounced as /b/ in Japanese (Tsuchida, 1995, p.147). These
words include view-bjuu, Ithaca-isaka and mother-mazaa. English vowels which have no
Japanese counterparts are produced as Japanese vowels with a similar height and backness (with
mouth position). English tense vowels are regarded as long vowels in Japanese while most lax
vowels are short vowels, but some lax vowels can be pronounced as long vowels because they
Lax vowels /I/→/i/: pin-pin, /ɛ/→/e/: pen-pen, /æ/→/a/: rally-rarii, /ɜ:/→/aa/: turn-taan,
/ɔ/→/oo/: call-kooru.
Japanese does not have consonant clusters unless the consonant is followed by /j/ in onset
position. When an English loanword has a consonant cluster, vowel insertion will happen: star-
From the above examples, it is obvious that after /t/ and /d/, Japanese tends to add o at the
end of words. That is because there are obstructions in Japanese. Some obstructions in English
ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 8
are realized as geminates in Japanese (Tsuchida, 1995, p.145). Consonants geminates are
observed when the original English obstruent appears word-finally, following a short vowel. For
example, the English word cut is pronounced as katto in Japanese. Japanese does not allow
obstruent in English, so cut cannot be realized as kat. This form violates Japanese coda
constraint, which prohibits a syllable-final obstruent unless it is part of geminate (i.e., coda).
Violation of coda can be avoided if a vowel is inserted after the obstruent (Tsuchida, 1995,
pitch-pittʃi. It is important to clarify that the consonants /b/, /z/, /ʒ/ and /l/ are never realized as
geminates. Some examples are Bob-bobu, jazz-dʒazu, vision-biʒon and bill-biru (Tsuchida,
1995, p.150).
words, word-medial voiceless obstruent is expressed as geminates when they are preceded by a
stressed vowel such as happy-happii, cotton-kotton, hockey-hokkee; but when they are preceded
English loanwords have three main functions in Japanese (Rebuck, 2002, p.54). First,
when there is no equivalent Japanese word, a loanword needs to fill a lexical gap (Takashi, 1990,
cited in Rebuck, 2002, p.54). The basic use of English loanwords is to define things when no
equivalent Japanese word exists. For example, rajio (radio) and roketto (rocket) are things
ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 9
introduced into Japan from abroad. Also, the lifestyles from western countries influence words in
Japanese, such as deto (date) which was first introduced during the US occupation and reflected
a more liberal view of male-female relations in a society where arranged marriage was common
(Rebuck, 2002, p.55). Another example is puraibashii (privacy). In pre-modern Japan, everyone
lived in intimate communities, they did not have the idea of privacy, so there is no corresponding
word in Japanese that can represent “privacy”. Loanwords can be recognized on a social problem
or need that may exist without a name. For example, demosuchikku baioresu (domestic violence)
and stooka (stalker) were created by campaigners fighting to bring to public attention social
problems (Rebuck, 2002, p.55). Some technical terms like sofuto wea (software) have the
similar function of lexical gap filling, but are more specialized. In advertisements for cosmetics,
specialist terms such as koraagen (collagen) not only fill the lexical gap, but also lend a product
Loanwords convey western qualities and are associated with western lifestyles. Japan is a
country that is always attracted to outside countries especially western countries because of the
cosmopolitan appeal. There is a slogan from a 1964 Toyota advertisement (Naito, 2001, cited in
Rebuck, 2002, p.57), Shiroyi kuraun wa, shiawase na hairaifu no shocho (The white crown,
symbol of a contented highlife). The use of kuraun and hairaifu helps audiences to form images
of life, and if audiences purchase Toyota, they can realize these images. At that time, crown and
highlife were two concepts that appeared in western countries. Japanese people were eager for
English loanwords can provide Japanese with supplementary vocabulary to make the
language versatile. For example, the marketing manager may call people buying products as
ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 10
yuuzaa (user), but when interacting with a customer directly he/she uses Japanese word
okyakusama (customer). Such English loanwords have Japanese equivalents, although the
loanwords may be used for a special effect. It should be noticed that there is often a difference in
the connotative meaning attached to loanwords (Rebuck, 2002, p.59). Nakamura (1995) carried
out a study into how Japanese students perceive the loanwords of colors. Surprisingly, students’
feelings about loanwords with colors is different from Japanese native words with colors. When
asking about Japanese word kiiro (yellow), most students had a feeling of uneasiness, but for
loanword ieroo (yellow), they felt bright and pretty. In some occasions, Japanese people use the
loanwords to express the same meaning with Japanese words, because they convey the different
emotions.
The third function is the euphemistic function. Some English loanwords have equivalent
Japanese words, but they are too direct or negative in Japanese. These loanwords are used in sex,
personal hygiene and health. For instance, herusu (health) refers to sexually orientated massage
parlor and deribari (delivery) means provision of the health girls’ services to private hotels
(Rebuck, 2002, p.62). Stanlaw (1999) suggests that the increasing use of the loanword mai (my)
is also an example of euphemistic function. The collocation like mai hoomu (my home) and mai
kaa (my car) reflects the move from group consciousness to individualism. Another example is
shinguru mazaa (single mother) is popularized instead of Japanese word mikon no haha
(unmarried mother), because it sounds more respectful to women. The similar examples to single
mother are shirubaa raifu (sliver life) and haroo wakku (hello work). Sliver life means the period
after retirement; hello work is employment center for restructured salary people.
Conclusion
ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 11
English loanwords in Japanese have a long history of adaptation. During this process, the
number English loanwords in Japan has grown substantially. Because of the foreign trade, many
new concepts from western countries flooded into Japan. Japanese speakers began to use words
about these concepts directly in order to keep authenticity; however, due to the Japanese
language pronunciation rules, there are some pronunciation changes for these loan words, such
as vowel insertion, coda deletion and simplification. During the adaptation, English loan words
increased in popularity due to their functions, including filling lexical gaps, expressing special
Reference
MacGregor, L. (2003). The language of shop signs in Tokyo. English Today, 19(1), 18-
23.
Olah, B. (2007). English loanwords in Japanese: Effects, attitudes and usage as a means
Smith, J. L. (2006). Loan phonology is not all perception: Evidence from Japanese loan