Japanese Loan Words

19 Responses to “Japanese Loan Words”

1. Masafumi on October 24th, 2007 11:50 pm

   Hi Sharon, I’m a native Japanese speaker, who enjoys reading your blog. I found this entry interesting.

   Though I knew the word rickshaw, I didn’t know it originated from a Japanese word. What’s even surprising (to me anyway) is the word soy. Until reading this entry, I never thought that this word came from Japan.

   Many other words with the Japanese origin seem to have been transcribed just as the Japanese people would actually write; yet, those words seem to have been transcribed in a more English way. Rickshaw, for example, is rikisha in Japanese, and ‘rikisha’ is how the Japanese people would transcribe rikisha in English alphabets.

   I believe ’soy’ came from shouyu (meaning soy sauce, and pronounced like ’show you’). But if that were the case, I would wonder why it was shouyu but not daizu (soy beans) that served as the origin of the word ’soy’.

2. Sharon on October 25th, 2007 1:29 am

   Hi Masafumi

   I’m not an expert, but it might depend on when a particular term entered the language and who brought it. Rickshaw might have been as close as a native English speaker could get to the original.

3. Tom on October 25th, 2007 6:36 pm

   Love your blog. How could you have possibly not included “karaoke”?

4. Sharon on October 25th, 2007 7:11 pm

   Yes, from the words for empty orchestra - good addition, Tom

5. Jamaipanese on October 26th, 2007 4:05 am

   great post, very informative ^_^

6. dawn on October 26th, 2007 8:27 am

   I am an English-Japanese translator, and I agree with Masafumi about the word “soy”. How could that possibly have come from “shoyu”? I’ve wondered that since well before this blog, of course :). I’ve also wondered about the word “ken” as in “outside of my ken”. It means “prefecture” in Japanese, but I think its similar use in English may just be a coincidence…
   Great post, thanks!

7. Sharon on October 26th, 2007 12:42 pm

   Thanks, Jaimpanese

   Dawn, I speak subject to correction, but I believe that the word ‘ken’ for know is used in Scotland and originates from the German ‘kennen’ to know, hence outside of my ken = beyond my knowledge. Maybe someone who knows more about it will weigh in with a better explanation.

8. dawn on October 27th, 2007 6:11 am

   Thanks Sharon, that confirms my suspicions. While I’m here too, the word “salaryman” also popped into my head as one of those re-imported Japanese phrases from English like “anime”. I’ve lived in Japan too long to know, but I believe that one has also picked up use among native English speakers…?

9. Sharon on October 27th, 2007 10:49 am

   Yes, definitely another re-importation, Dawn. I’m not sure how widely it’s used, but then as a freelancer I’m not often in corporate circles

10. Nekhrun on October 29th, 2007 7:01 am

    I never knew “rickshaw” is a Japanese word. Thanks for improving my language history.

11. Joy-Mari Cloete on October 30th, 2007 7:25 am

    Wow. I didn’t know that Honcho is Japanese. And is it not unnecessary to say head Honcho, then?

12. dawn on October 31st, 2007 7:07 am

    Oh, I can’t help but keep coming back to this post! Here are some others:
    aikido (martial art)
    judo (martial art)
    hibachi (charcoal grill or heater)
    kendo (martial art)
    koto (musical instrument)
    Noh (theatre)
    pachinko (pinball game)
    s(h)amisen (musical instrument)
    shiatsu (massage)
    shogun (military general)
    tatami (straw mats/flooring)
    ukiyo-e (woodblock prints)
    zaibatsu (corporate conglomorates)

13. Sharon on October 31st, 2007 9:53 am

    Great additions, Dawn.

14. peter on October 31st, 2007 9:52 pm

    don’t forget:

    surimi (fake crab meat)
    banzai (desperate charge)
    sashimi (thinly sliced, raw meat)
    ronin (rogue warrior)
    mimikaki (ear wax cleaner)

15. Georg on November 3rd, 2007 8:22 am

    Are you sure you mean “from Japanese via Chinese”, instead of “from Chinese via Japanese”? Japanese has taken many words from Chinese, but I’m not so sure it is the other way around.

16. Sharon on November 3rd, 2007 10:42 am

    Thanks for the additions, Peter.

    Georg, I guess it’s all in the way you think about it. I’m talking about their route into English. In some cases the English language borrowed a word from Japanese, which was borrowed by Japanese from Chinese. Hope that makes it clearer.

17. Sean M on February 17th, 2008 11:46 am

    Thanks for the post!!!

18. David on May 3rd, 2008 11:24 pm

    What about skosh? I’ve always wondered why Americans say, “just a skosh bigger”. Isn’t this the same exact meaning is the Japanese sukoshi?

    Tenpura, Saki (sake), Ramen, Sukiyaki, and many other food names come from Japan, obviously.

    We eschew the Japanese term “Yaki Soba” here (sounds like yucky soba), so Japanese merchants have begun calling it “chow mein” instead.

19. David on May 3rd, 2008 11:30 pm

    Ikebana?

    Sumi-e?

    Interesting that Kimono is unchanged, Happi has been rendered as “Happy Coat”, but zori were once known here as thongs, and now as flip flops. What’s so hard about saying zori or geta?

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