Section 3- Japanese and English: The reasons and impacts of the interaction between the two languages

Figure 12- Japanese and English loanwords

Two main methods of interaction between two languages are the loanwords and the direct use of foreign language. Loanword refers to “language that came from the outside.”[1] From the history of both Japan and English-speaking countries, they all have the experiences of adopting other languages far before they contact with each other. For example, Chinese lends a huge amount of words to Japanese, which are called kanji.

Loanwords in Japanese are written in certain script to fit grammars while in English they are usually written as Japanese pronunciations in Arabic letters. In Japanese, loanwords are called gairaigo and written in katakana script.[2] Additionally, Japanese loanwords in English do not have special system to distinguish Japanese loans from others. They are all written as how they are pronounced according to the Japanese syllabary. For instance, the Japanese sword is written as katana, which is exactly how to voice it in both Japanese and English.

Although English is often translated into katakana characters, sometimes it also remains untranslated in Japanese. This is the direct use of English. Mainly, the young generation prefers to use English directly in their daily conversation. Unavoidably, the direct use of English is spread in the modernized fields of people’s lives as well.

Someone might support that Japanese and English are not deeply influenced each other as Chinese and Latin did to Japanese and English respectively. But the truth is the contributions these two languages do for each other are also profound. One most obvious manifestation is the large scale of loanwords. According to Bates Hoffer from Trinity University, there were already more than 3000 loanwords with English roots in Japanese language in 1980.[3] This amount is considerable. Japanese language as well “…is now the second most prolific contributor of new loanwords to English… .”[4] Therefore, a fact comes out. Japanese and English languages have come to influence each other deeply in recent decades because of the historical reason and the power of media, which elicits the social response.

Reasons for the interaction:

As there are more and more loanwords that English and Japanese imports from each other, many scholars start arguing about the origin and reasons for this interaction. There are several verdicts, such as the closer communications and contacts on business or the immigration. Among all the possible reasons, historical reason and media are the most influential factors to mutual influences of Japanese and English.

Figure 13- Japanese young emperor with foreign representitives in Meiji era (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teenager_Meiji_Emperor_with_foreign_representatives_1868_1870.jpg)

Historical facts explain why there is interaction between these two languages. Influences between these two languages, accompanied with the contact between Japan and western world, began in the middle of nineteenth century. Americans desired to gain profits from the isolated Japan so they successfully “ended the sakoku period” of Japan by force.[5] Then thousands of westerners came to Japan. During this period, the language set a barrier between Japan and the United States. Stanlaw points out that the imprecise translation from English to Japanese precipitated Japan into a tough time.[6] This is the motive of Japan’s adoption of English. Entering the era of Meiji Restoration, Japanese government became active to facilitate the contact with the western by improving the English education. As Hoffer mentions, Japanese students went to English-speaking countries and “Today over 90% of the students graduating from high school have had six years of English language classes.”[7] Because Japanese people became more and more familiar with English, it is natural that English’s influence on Japanese gradually extended.

In addition to the history, media plays a significant role in the issue of Japanese’s impact on English. This can be seen in the following several examples. One typical example is tsunami. David Braun published an article on National Geographic, maintaining that tsunami appears widely in English works after the first use of this word in this magazine in 1896.[8] The power of media can make the spread and adoption of a new language. Moreover, Margaret Pine, the researcher from Tokyo Seitoku University, demonstrates that Japanese loanwords are used in English is because of “…the ease of access to information on the Internet, especially for certain media forms such as manga and anime.”[9] So the convenience of access to media compounds the effects of Japanese on English, which shows that media is a powerful tool to spread a language to another.

Negative impacts of the interaction:

As mutual effects have been deepened day by day, two main drawbacks are noticed by the speakers of these two languages, especially by Japanese people. The first negative side is that the interaction on language increases the gap between old generations and young generation. For example, the Japanese parent says that he cannot understand his daughter’s words because she uses many English loanwords.[10] English words are the fashion for the youth, which prevents older generations from communicating with their children. Without communications, hardly can parents educate their children when they are misled, which is socially harmful. Moreover, the adoption of foreign languages is regarded as pollution by some people. Koscielecki quotes Morris’ idea that “Loanwords…should not be used to replace native Japanese words.”[11] The great amount of loanwords is dominating Japanese so they are losing their own language and this is what the pollution means.

Positive impacts of the interaction:

It is inevitable that the contact between two things is fraught with many conflicts and harmful influence. However, there are also enormous positive sides of this interaction, which are the innovation of language, cultural understanding as well as modernization for a country.

Linguistically, the close relationship between Japanese and English benefits both of them. One of its beneficial impacts is enrichment of words to express certain meanings. Pine provides an example that tsunami was used as a noun of a disaster but in today’s English, it is adapted as “the metaphorical meaning of an overwhelming, usually negative, amount of something… .”[12] So the adoption of this Japanese word increases a way for English speakers to describe the huge quantity. Furthermore, the wide use of English in Japanese enriches and reforms pop-culture. There is a flood of loanwords and the direct use of English in Japanese pop songs, which is the typical case. This flood makes Japanese poetic works full of “audacious” and “exotic” senses.[13] This is what the old Japanese songs’ lyrics lack. They create “images or metaphors to express various forms of social commentary.”[14] All of these can never be done simply with pure Japanese language. It is a revolution of the pop-culture by using English to fashion their works into more bold and advanced expression.

Figure 14- Japanese pop song : Sign (FLOW) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpSVdY992gU&feature=related)

Additionally, it is the promise of modernization for Japan and tool to culturally contact. The influence by adopting English helps Japan to study new technology and ideas because “the majority of recent loanwords come from English, especially in the domains of technology… .”[15] Those loanwords are helpful and irreplaceable for learning modern technologies to develop the country. Moreover, it helps people from two cultural backgrounds to understand each other. Edward Sapir, the well-known linguist, suggests that “When there is cultural borrowing there is always the likelihood that the associated words may be borrowed too” and vice versa.[16] Owing to the acquaintance of cultural loanwords like geisha or samurai, English speakers are able to understand Japanese culture and characteristic, which decreases the conflicts because of misunderstanding.

Conclusion:

To sum up, the open to the world and the power of media result most in the contact between the two languages: Japanese and English. Although there is variety of shortcomings for this mutual influence, the contribution of this interaction to the development of Japan, the enrichment of expression ways in pop-culture, and the cultural comprehension is even more of importance. What’s more, the impacts of languages contact are reciprocal, but are not the same. From the information that is mentioned above, English language has more influence on Japanese. It comes to a conclusion that when two languages have a connection with each other, it is often the one with more powerful and developed background that is more influential.

Word count: 1500

---

[1] Takako Tomoda, “The impact of loan-words on modern Japanese”, Japan Forum 11, Iss. 2 (18 April 2007): 232.

[2] Tomoda, 232.

[3] Bates Hoffer, “English Loanwords in Japanese: Some Cultural Implications”, Language Sciences 12, no. 1 (1980): 1.

[4] John Algeo and Adele Algeo, “Among the New Words”, American Speech 68, no. 3 (Autumn, 1993):253.

[5] James Stanlaw, Japanese English: language and culture contact (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,2004), 53.

[6] Stanlaw, 54.

[7] Hoffer, 3.

[8] David Braun, “How Tsunami Became an English Word After National Geographic Reported 1896 Disaster” National Geographic, 18 March 2011.http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/18/how_tsunami_became_an_english_word/, accessed 16 March 2012.

[9] Margaret Pine, “English Loanwords from Japanese: A Survey of the Perceptions of American English Speakers” (2010) http://www.tsu.ac.jp/bulletin/bulletin/pdf/17/017-032.pdf, accessed 16 March 2012.

[10] Jonathan Watts, “English loan words create ‘durama’ in Japan”, The Guardian, 6 May 1999.

[11] Marek Koscielecki, “Japanized English, its context and socio-historical background”, English Today 88, Vol.22, no.4(October 2006): 28.

[12] Pine, 23.

[13] Stanlaw, 104.

[14] Stanlaw, 102.

[15] Daniel J. Vogler, “An Overview of the History of the Japanese Language” (20 March 1998) http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/japanese.htm, accessed 16 March 2012.

[16] Edward Sapir, Language: an introduction to the study of speech. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.,1949): 193.