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Running head: ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 1

The Adaptation of English Loan Words in Japanese

Xiayu Guo

Colorado State University


ENGLISH LOAN WORDS IN JAPANESE 2

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.

The History of English Loanwords in Japanese

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

(Olah, 2007, p.178).

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

technology, fashion and sports.

The number of English loanwords is a result of the influence of American culture in

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,
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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

are shown as Katakana form, for example, Makudonarodo hanbaga (マクドナルドハンバーガー )

is McDonald’s hamburger (MacGregor, 2003, p.3).

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

products and styles exist.

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

nau-i, which means advance.

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

(guard). These verbs are about modernity, beauty, cleanliness or luxury.

The Pronunciation of English Loanwords

When discussing pronunciation of English loanwords, the differences between the

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

obvious reflection on this point is vowels in two languages.


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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

met and the o in fort. According to Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese

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)

and we (in wet) to the ears of English speakers.

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

and pi, the vowel i is pronounced faintly.

Most Japanese consonants are pronounced like English letters, but there are some

differences (Nakao, 1995, p.xi).

 The combination of ch is pronounced as in chair but not in character or charade.

 The letter g is pronounced as in gift or get but not in ginger or generation.

 The ts in the syllable tsu corresponds to nothing in English. It sounds like the ts in

footsore. It’s a single consonant.

 The f in fu often sounds like h.

 The r is not like r in English. It sounds like l. Japanese has no l sound, but r is

pronounced as l to English speakers.


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 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

syllables in English (to-ky-o), but it is two-syllable word in Japanese (to-kyo).

 The n has two pronunciations. In na, ni, nu, ne and no, it is like n in English. The other is

syllabic n. It is nasalized when it is at the end of a syllable.

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,

accelerator-akuseru; and sometimes there is a combination of long words: air conditioner-

eakon, word processor-wapuro, personal computer-pasokon.

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):

 Onset cluster simplification by deletion: glycerin-guriserin, white shirt-howaito.

 Final coda deletion: jitterbug-ditabaggu, pocket-poketto, lemonade-remonedo, all right-

oruraito.

 Final coda-cluster simplification by deletion: crank-kuranku, never mind-nebamaindo,

cement-semento, roast-rosuto.
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 Coda /ŋ/ as /ngu/, /m/ as /mu/: pudding-pudingu, surfing-safingu, cleaning-kuriiningu,

skim-sukimu.

 Medial coda deletion: hepburn-heppuban, beef steak-bifusuteki, don’t mind-dontomaindo.

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-

ieroo, window-uindoo, fork-hooku and love-rabu.

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

are phonetically long (Tsuchida, 1994, p.148):

 Lax vowels /I/→/i/: pin-pin, /ɛ/→/e/: pen-pen, /æ/→/a/: rally-rarii, /ɜ:/→/aa/: turn-taan,

/ɔ/→/oo/: call-kooru.

 Tense vowels /i/→/ii/: key-kii, /u/→/uu/: cue-kjuu, /oʊ/→/oo/: zone-zoon.

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-

sutaa, grill-guriru and friend-furendo.

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
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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

word-final obstruent, so phonological adjustments are necessary to realize the word-final

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,

p.146). This is a kind of word-final obstruent. Besides, word-final voiceless obstruent in

loanwords is usually geminated, such as tulip-tʃuurippu, blanket-buranketto, kick-kikku and

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).

There is also word-medial obstruent in Japanese (Tsuchida, 1995, p.151). In English

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

by an unstressed vowel, there is no medial gemination. For example, support is pronounced as

sapooto but not sappooto.

The Functions of English Loanwords

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
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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

an aura of specific reliability (Rebuck, 2002, p.56).

The second function of English loanwords is as substitutions for special effects.

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

this luxury life, so this advertisement was attractive for them.

English loanwords can provide Japanese with supplementary vocabulary to make the

language versatile. For example, the marketing manager may call people buying products as
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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
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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

effects and euphemism.


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Reference

MacGregor, L. (2003). The language of shop signs in Tokyo. English Today, 19(1), 18-

23.

Nakao, S. (1995). Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary. Random

House, New York.

Olah, B. (2007). English loanwords in Japanese: Effects, attitudes and usage as a means

of improving spoken English ability. Bunkyo Gakuin Daigaku Ningen Gakubu

Kenkyū Kiyo, 9(1), 177-188.

Rebuck, M. (2002). The function of English loanwords in Japanese. NUCB journal of

language culture and communication, 4(1), 53-64.

Smith, J. L. (2006). Loan phonology is not all perception: Evidence from Japanese loan

doublets. Japanese/Korean Linguistics, 14, 63-74.

Tsuchida, A. (1995). English loans in Japanese: Constraints in loanword phonology. Working

Papers of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory, 10, 145-164.

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