Background: exchange student (US to Japan) late 1970s. I took Japanese in college to try to not lose my not-so-great Japanese, but that was pre-internet, and my opportunities for Japanese video watching, or conversing with Japanese speakers was limited. So eventually I forgot nearly all I’d ever known. But on occasion I’d try to pull up my old books or otherwise recall a few words.
2019: I wanted to plan a special trip with my daughter. Where did she want to go? “Japan.” Oh, okay. I booked everything and started to study Japanese. WK, some books of Amazon, TV, etc… But our 2020 trip didn’t happen, lol.
After pandemic reopenings, daughter had been studying Spanish, so we planned a trip where she could use some of that language. I dropped Japanese study and worked on Spanish for a while.
Now … I’m back! Yay! Keeping up daily Duo streak and also finally resuming WK and whittling reviews from over 800 down to about 600 and continuing.
But … one thing that drives me crazy – especially with Duolingo, but also a bit with WK – is … there are just SO MANY loanwords now!
Or was I clueless back then? I really only recall a few loanwords ever coming up in conversation.
Now I think I’ve already encountered at least 100 loanwords, especially in Duo, that I could swear did not exist 40-something years ago. And some of which had perfectly good native Japanese alternatives!
Duo may be using more of these, just thinking they’ll be “easier” for English speakers to learn. (They’re really mostly annoying to try to pronounce, vs. normal Japanese words.)
And certainly some words weren’t even part of my English vocabulary (for good reasons) back then. (パソコン, for example.)
But then there are words like チケット. Seriously? I could swear we used 切符 back then. Which, tbh, is easier to say, if not to write.
Does anyone know of any resources that explore this apparent explosion of loanwords?
E.g., how many words the average person knew back in the late 70s vs. now?
Or how many loanwords would be used in everyday conversation then vs. now?
I’d just love to know more about this topic.
Or … maybe it all really is my imagination and I just didn’t “pick up” on the loanwords back then. But I don’t think that’s the case.
I remember a while ago now, I was reading something and the author was saying how there was a TV show where the writers made a decision not to use any loan words, as much as they could. The show is apparently quite difficult for people to understand because of that, due to the amount of loan words the average person uses.
If anyone knows what that show is I would love to know. Maybe I’m misremembering in my old age?
The number of loan words increases every year, little by little.
It would be fascinating to see stats from a dictionary organisation or something. Looking around the net quickly, I can see a number of theories bandied about, though the one I find most convincing is simply that as international communication increased widely it’s had a corresponding effect on language generally, while the explosion in mass popular media has likewise had a corresponding effect on the easy spread of ‘new words’ (in advertising etc).
As you point out, internet and consumer technology has also popularised a lot of eng terms in more recent years.
I did find this Tofugu article that noted studies from the 90s found 35% of words in 70 magazines were foreign loanwords, as well as a citation in the Bunkyou Gakuin Department of Language Studies bulletin of other studies to the effect that Sanseido’s katakana dictionary from 2000 had 52,500 foreign loanwords compared to the 1972 edition, which had 20,000.
There is another thing to note, though, of course, which is that (like most languages) Japanese has always had loanwords - just most of those loanwords used to be from Chinese or other, closer languages (with exceptions like 天ぷら, which is probably from Portugeuse).
I feel like 切符 is still typical for something like train tickets.
To me チケット has more of a feeling of movie theaters, sporting events, etc.
Maybe it’s just me.
There’s obviously a trend toward adding loanwords as opposed to reducing the number, so it doesn’t surprise me to hear that the subjective experience is that more exist now.
Especially in the business world, there’s an abundance of unnecessary loanword use just to be more “business-like”. But in my everyday life I don’t find myself upset by loanwords.
As an aside, a loanword that made me chuckle recently was アバウト, meaning “sloppy” or “lackadaisical.”
あいつはアバウトすぎる
Relevant to this discussion, Wiktionary also documents a usage of that back to 1978, so it’s at least that old.
Oh I can’t wait to read that full Tofugu article! It’s past my bedtime, so I’ll save it for the morning, as I really want to absorb it all.
I did skim the first couple of paragraphs. This one made me laugh.
“My wife, who’s originally from the United States and now is a fluent speaker of Japanese after living in Japan for 15 years, still struggles to pronounce one of her home country’s most well-known brands — “McDonald’s,” which in Japanese is マクドナルド (makudonarudo).”
It’s funny to me, because I struggle to pronounce so many loanwords! I just stumble all over them. However, back in my Japan days, there was a TV commercial for McD, and I still remember the tune that goes along with makudonarudo. I even occasionally hum it in my head when I’m just going about my daily American English-speaking life and pass a McDonald’s restaurant. It was that catchy! So that’s one word that just slides off my tongue easily. The old ads can be seen on Youtube now, of course.
Another funny story … and because I’m short on time I’m just sticking with Romaji now. There were, of course, a very few loanwords I did learn during my exchange. But one day, some students said a word they thought I would understand. And I didn’t. Eventually, I think maybe a Danish student nearby may have been the one who worked out the meaning of arubaito, which I think comes from German?
But yes, I do understand, and it does make sense that Japanese got a lot from Chinese, etc. And now I’m curious as to what Portugeuse word(s) influenced 天ぷら. I’d have sworn that one was native Japanese! Oops!
I`m german and I feel like everyone 30years old and younger uses like 1 or more english words every other sentence. My social bubble (Gaming and youtube) obviously is a big reason why I feel that way.
Consider of course that English is quite up there in the loanword usage stakes! As has been said, “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” ( attributed to James D. Nicoll:)
@Nafets Yes, definitely. I was also one of those people. Last year, I made a concerted effort to stop using so many English words because to be honest it sounds awful.
For me it depends on who I am talking with. When I am talking to my friends my sentences are nearly 50% english when I am talking to other people I try to keep it at a minimum.
I’m noticing the same with young people’s speech patterns here in Romania. They’re just throwing in English words mixed with Romanian, they’re not ‘loaned’ in the way Japanese takes foreign words and changes them - just straight up English words.
I find it quite awful, to be honest… however I’m also guilty of it to an extent, but at least I’m using full English expressions/sentences rather than mix the two languages.
Then again, I use English exclusively at work, then there’s the online forums and so on… so I suppose it’s inevitable.
Wish that I could at some point exchange those English expressions with Japanese
Funny enough, although I don’t speak German that particular word instantly clicked when I first encountered it since it’s not too different from the original ‘arbeit’. Whereas with a lot of (most?) English-loaned words I struggle to figure them out when I see the katakana. It’s slightly easier when hearing them, but in writing they’re a pain…
All languages borrow words. The Japanese have obviously borrowed many Chinese words over the years - I know no Korean and no Chinese, but thanks to Japanese, I hear words like 約束 all the time when watching Korean TV series.
But yes, it does seem a shame that katakana words are replacing perfectly useful Japanese words - especially as katakana is my least favourite script….
I know a lot of older Japanese feel the same way. On a side issue, as an Australian, I feel sad when our words get replaced by American usages - “hiking” has pretty much now replaced our “bushwalking”. It’s the homogenising effect of the internet.
Mind you, one thing that does tickle my fancy a bit is that the Japanese word for the collective skills needed to survive in a natural environment is ブッシュクラフト (though they did get that from the general use of the term in English rather than directly from Australian).
karaoke isn’t borrowed from English though, ‘oke’ is but the entire word itself originates in Japanese. It’s considered Japanese to the point that my Japanese colleagues didn’t even know why it was written in katakana when I asked them about it.
when I am talking to other people I try to keep it at a minimum.
