Questions tagged [loanwords]
外来語. Words brought into Japanese from languages other than Chinese.
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What term is used for different types of smoking (e-cigs, vapes, cigars)?
If someone wants to smoke a cigarette in your presence, they might ask "タバコいいっすか？". I've also heard it referred to as 煙 (kemuri). I'd imagine those terms work for cigars as well (however ...
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Why isn't there an actual Japanese word for "balcony"?
The Japanese word for "balcony" is a loanword of veranda - ベランダ (Beranda). Veranda is a Anglo-Indian word from Hindi varanda which came from Portuguese varanda and is extensively used in ...
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When to use ンネ vs ッネ?
For example, why the correct spelling is トンネル rather than トッネル ?
Is it an arbitrary/historical choice, or is there a rule that explains it? Would the pronunciation differ?
This wiki page says that ッ &...
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Why does 'アプリストア’ mean appstore?
I initially expected 'appstore' to be アップストア
I don't see why it's translated as 'apuri-store'
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Does フェミニスト mean something like "womanizer"?
Does フェミニスト mean something like "womanizer"?
Wiktionary says:
(dated, colloquial) a chivalrous man
Vice reports that someone on Reddit said:
One Reddit commenter suggested that the text ...
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Can the "&"-symbol (ampersand) be used in Japanese to connect two language names?
For example, is this correct and commonly understood by Japanese-readers:
"日本語 & 英語"
which should represent "Japanese & English" and denote a bilingual edition of a ...
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Meaning of ローンボーイ
From the visual novel Higurashi no Naku Koro ni,
圭一
「おいおいおいおい！ 本人不在で勝手に話を進めるなー！ 俺は孤独と静寂を愛するロンリーガイだぜー？」
魅音
「あっはははははっは！！ だぁれがロンリーガイだー！」
魅音
ローンボーイの間違いでしょー？ くっくっくっく！」
レナ
「はぅ～、ローンって圭一くん…。 お金に困ってるなら協力するよ…...
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ト and ツ in English loanwords
When it comes to gairaigo, every time there's a consonant cluster or a final one you generally add a -u to it. Glass=gurasu, plan=puran, story=sutoorii, wrestling=resuringu.
As far as I can tell, this ...
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Difference between 火花 and スパーク
When talking about sparks, what is the difference between 火花 and スパーク?
If I want to describe a spark of static electricity, which word is better to use?
Can either of these words be used ...
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Difference between 道化師, ピエロ, and クラウン
What’s the difference in usage between these three words?
ピエロ
クラウン
道化師
Which of these would describe a typical American’s notion of a circus clown?
type of clown I’m thinking of
Does one of these ...
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Kanji after gairaigo pronunciation [duplicate]
For instance, in "アカウントにサインイン中です。" How is "中" pronounced?
At a purely mental level, I've always maintained the idea that how you read is up to you, which seems to be backed by ...
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Did the medical mask exist in Japan before the arrival of the English?
The word for a medical "mask" is borrowed from the English language. Does this infer that these types of masks did not exist in Japan before the arrival of the English? If these masks did ...
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What is the difference between ギャンブラー, 博徒, and 博奕打ち?
I was looking up a character from a Japanese game whose profession/specialty was gambler and saw that the word used in Japanese was ギャンブラー. My general distaste for katakana-English inflamed, I looked ...
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How to understand usage of ツ in words with a closed syllable?
We have words ペット、ベッド、ファックス、ピクニック.
The symbol ッ usually is indicated for doubling consonants or to indicate a closed syllable.
The question is why the word post (ポスト) was written without ッ before ト?
...
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How to read 艶肌 in 艶肌メイク
Question: How is the 艶肌 in 艶肌メイク ("glossy skin make-up") pronounced?
Context: An Instagram influencer used 艶肌メイク in one of their posts.
Background: I struggle with newly coined Japanese ...
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What was the movement of tea leaves called before it was called ジャンピング?
I recently learned that apparently the phenomenon of tea leaves moving up and down in very hot water is called ジャンピング (See example videos). This surprises me a bit as I would certainly expect that ...
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Why is there ベッドルーム when there's already 寝室? [duplicate]
I was trying to find house vocabulary and found multiple (from my perspective) synonyms (where the synonyms sounded like English). For example, ベッドルーム and 寝室, as well as キッチン and 台所, as well as バスルーム ...
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Meaning of "本ノック"?
I've seen some books with "本ノック" in the title, such as "Python実践データ分析100本ノック" and "有機化学1000本ノック 反応機構編" but can't figure out what it actually means.
I've also seen it used ...
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What is the reason for the odd vowel values of Japanese ココア?
I've done a bit of digging, and for the life of me, I cannot find any clear record or explanation for why Japanese ココア is pronounced the way it is.
Sources researched to date:
Lots of different ...
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Do [贈]{おく}り物 and プレゼント mean the same thing?
The use of loan words such as プレゼント are used much more just like カメラ is and such. So should i just disregard [贈]{おく}り物 and focus my memory on something else or do you know if [贈]{おく}り物 is still used ...
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Loanwords not being pronounced in a normal moraic rhythm?
Here's a spectogram of a speaker's rendition of “プロトタイプ” from English “prototype”, collected from Forvo
It should be clear from this spectogram that the pu-mora is pronounced in half a mora; the mora-...
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Do loanwords have quasi-phonemic vowel reduction?
I've started to notice this, and I'm not sure whether my eyes are deceiving me or not, but it seems as if several, but not all loans have a high statistical probability of vowels being reduced/...
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Is ゼミ a synonym for a university class?
I know that ゼミ is short for ゼミナール (seminar), but the word seems to be used differently than how it's used in English. My guess from the times I've seen it used is that it's a catch-all term for ...
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Why is "Wikipedia" written as ウィキペディア instead of ワィキペディア?
The free online dictionary Wikipedia is called ウィキペディア in kana.
Why is it not called ワィキペディア? Which string of kana provides a pronunciation closer to the English word?
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Is there a Kanji for the Japanese word イクラ as in salmon roe?
I can't find anything in the dictionary.
My book gives the word in hiragana but the dictionary also shows katakana.
A quick google revealed that it is a loanword from Russian so katakana seems more ...
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What is the etymological origin of the word キノピオ (Toad in Super Mario Bros)?
I just found out the Toad character from the Super Mario Bros is known as キノピオ in Japan.
Where does that name come from? I know 茸 (きのこ) means mushroom, but what does the suffix -ピオ stand for?
Thanks ...
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Why are some Japanese foreign words spelled with different sounds?
Please consider the following:
Warrior is ウォリアー： this vowel sound "a" changes to ”オ"
Work is ワーク:this vowel sound "o" changes to "ア"
Chariot is チャリオット:this vowel sound "a" stays "ア"
Corridor is コリドー:...
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パドル -What does it actually mean?
I believe, many of you have already seen this meme.
In short, in a PlayStation game Fate/Extra an anime girl is singing Jingle bells-like song in Japanese:
走{はし}れ艝{そり}よ
風{かぜ}のように
月{ずき}見晴{みは}らを
...
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Did the Japanese have a concept of "Asia" apart from the Eurocentric definition?
Japan had contact with China, India and the Mongols, among others. Is there a term they used for Asia (in the sense of "land mass where China is" or such) before "アジア"?
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Is 人孔 from English?
I was discussing with a friend about the word 人孔, and I know I read (or was told) that it's taken from the English "manhole", literally juxtaposing the kanji for "man" with that for "hole", since for ...
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Why is デレる ichidan? (Etymology of デレる and デレデレ)
I thought modern slangy verbs coined from onomatopoeia and loanwords were all godan verbs (for example, ググる, コピる, ピヨる, ボコる). This has been asked several times:
What are the principles behind turning ...
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Correct translation for application user roles
I'm working on an application which has user roles such as "admin", "customer", "contractor"and would like to add localisation to the app.
On my main menu I have:
Users
Roles
Tenants
and the ...
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Native Japanese vocabulary, pure Wago/Yamato Kotoba
Can you still speak Japanese while avoiding to use most Chinese loan words? The native portion of the Japanese language is called Yamato Kotoba or Wago, but how fluent could you still be without the ...
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How to know whether a word is borrowed from foreign languages?
If I want to translate the word "card" into Japanese, there's only one word in Katakana in Google Translation: カード. If I search the relevant Chinese word "卡片", there's still only one single result カード
...
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Why is beatboxing called 「ヒューマンビートボックス」?
I was watching TV when the topic turned to certain celebrities' ability to beatbox. In talking about this every mention of the term beatbox was
ヒューマンビートボックス.
Why is human necessary?
The use of ...
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What term would be used for words that are borrowed from Japanese and used in other languages?
Many Japanese words are used in other languages, sushi, anime, karaoke, tsunami....
Is there a term to identify these words? I am familiar with terms such as 外来語 to indicate loanwords borrowed from ...
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At what age is a person considered to be シルバー?
I read this term in an online article and it was referring to people. I assume it means elderly people. Is there an age that one must be to use this term?
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Looking to understand a fantasy name
This is related to Beyblade, regarding a team exclusive to a game that didn't get translated to English. Each blader has their own holy beast to command and I'm not getting the name of one of them.
...
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What's the origin of the title 親王?
As far as I know, prior to the adoption of the title "Emperor" in ancient China by Shihuangdi (who claimed to be the first 皇帝 (huangdi), from the titles of 8 ancient godly beings), 王 was the sole ...
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Why ロサンゼルス and not ロスアンゼルス but ロスアラモス and not ロサラモス？
Is there a rule as to when to keep the articles like San,Las, Los,La, Le (L'), Les (yes, my dear Dutch, not forgetting Den), in names on separate katakanas? Sometimes there is no choice, like in Las ...
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Are on’yomi words loanwords?
this is probably a silly question, but since words with multiple kanji are usually read with on’yomi would that effectively make most japanese vocabulary loanwords? like 森林 or 図書館？i understand ...
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How to pronounce 1ターン?
I've seen the phrase 1ターン1度 "once per turn" used in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card game, so it seems like ターン is a legit counter. But I'm not sure how to pronounce it. From what I've googled so far, some people ...
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Transcription and pronunciation of words that had "wi" in them in English and are「ウィ」in Japanese
I was looking up how the name Will Smith is pronounced and written in Japanese. Why does "Will" become 「ウィル」? I would have expected ワ to be used instead for the first sound.
I found mentions of the "...
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Etymology of bateren (伴天連 / 破天連)
The archaic Japanese word bateren 伴天連 / 破天連 (referring to a missionary [Jesuit] priest) is derived from the Portuguese padre.
The Portuguese word notably does not contain or end in a nasal consonant, ...
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Unvoiced vowels in katakana: special case?
When foreign words or proper names are used in Japanese, some modifications are necessary, in particular a lot of vowels are introduced. E.g. 'plastic' (two syllables) becomes プラスチック (five). In this ...
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Is the adjective インディペンデント actually used as an adjective?
I saw a movie labeled
インディペンデント作品
The adjective インディペンデント does not end in i and is followed by neither na nor no here. Is this meant as a strange compound noun (katakana + kanji)? Or is this a ...
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Why are there very few non-する gairaigo verbs in Japanese?
I can think of many gairaigo noun + する verbs in Japanese, like ゴルフする, but I can think of only a handful of non-する verbs in Japanese, such as ググる (mentioned in Are there words which consist of katakana ...
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How did スマート (from 'smart' in English) shift to mean 'slim, trim' and 'stylish'?
I first learned of this loanword on /r/FalseFriends. Wiktionary:
Etymology
From English smart.
Adjectival noun
スマート (-na inflection, rōmaji sumāto)
slim, trim,
slender
stylish
What type of semantic ...
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