Japanese borrowings and reborrowings

Most Americans probably know a few Japanese loanwords, especially those who were alive in the two or three decades after WWII, when so many terms from Japan entered the English language — kamikaze, banzai, bonsai, origami, and so forth — with soldiers returning from the war in the Far East.

In the recent two or three decades, Japanese words, continued to enter English but from different avenues — anime, manga, sudoku, karaoke, etc.

The rate and routes of current borrowings are more dilatory and diverse.

"The unexpected ways in which Japanese words 'make it' into English", Thu-huong Ha, The Japan Times (4/18/24)

On March 26, the Oxford English Dictionary, the historical dictionary widely considered as the definitive record of the English language, added 23 Japanese borrowings to its 500,000 words and phrases. Most were culture-related nouns, especially in food (“tonkotsu,” “onigiri”), along with “kintsugi,” “omotenashi” and “washi tape.”

Danica Salazar, lexicographer and executive editor for world Englishes at the OED, says: 

“Things happen to words as they travel from one language to another, and that's perfectly normal.”

She points to the case of reborrowings, also called boomerang words, which are words that pass from one language to the other, and then back again. The Japanese “anime” is short for “animēshon,” which, of course, came from the English for “animation,” but has since re-entered English with a more specific meaning. The same goes for “cosplay,” or “kosupure,” originally a combination of “costume” and “play” from English, which was added to the OED in 2008.

“NG,” which stands for “no good,” is used liberally in Japan but is, to an American English speaker, “not a thing” as they might say. But emoji sets, having originated in Japan, still retain a number of Japanese-specific concepts. So “NG” has its own emoji, right above “OK” on the iOS keyboard.

These examples are from the interplay of two languages — what about three? “Sukinshippu,” a word made in Japan based on “skin” and “relationship” to mean physical affection (as in, between a parent and child or friends) was later borrowed into Korean (“seukinsip”). It now also includes the meaning of PDA, and can be used by fans when gossiping about celebrities. With the rise of K-pop, “skinship” has now made it into English usage.

I wonder if many people draw a parallel between "skinship" and "kinship".

Here's the list of the 23 Japanese words that made it into the Oxford English Dictionary last month.

• donburi, n.
• hibachi, n.
• isekai, n.
• kagome, n.
• karaage, n.
• katsu, n.
• katsu curry, n.
• kintsugi, n.
• kirigami, n.
• mangaka, n.
• okonomiyaki, n.
• omotenashi, n.
• onigiri, n.
• santoku, n.
• shibori, n.
• takoyaki, n.
• tokusatsu, n.
• tonkatsu, n.
• tonkatsu sauce, n.
• tonkotsu, n./1
• tonkotsu, n./2
• washi tape, n.
• yakiniku, n.

How many of them do you know? Hontōni?

Incidentally, I just heard separately of the new borrowing of an English word into Japanese:

raidoshea ライドシェア ("rideshare")

Linda Chance notes:  These days transcriptions follow pronunciation in the source language more than spelling.

Apparently "rideshare" has become a hot word in Japanese these days because of a shortage of taxis in Tokyo.

 

Selected readings

• "Mix and match Japanese orthography" (4/17/24)
• "Multiscriptal cosplay poster in Haifa" (1/1/17)
• "Japan: crazy over portmanteaux" (7/26/16) — for the concept of what I call "round-trip words" and what the author of the article being introduced here calls "boomerang words"

For the concept of "round-trip word", see:

• "'And the greatest Japanese export to China is…'" (8/21/12) — and the comments thereto for an interesting discussion boncerning it
• "Sino-Nipponica" (7/26/15)
• "Too many recent Japanese loanwords in English?" (7/17/13)
• From the Wikipedia article:

"Bento" originates from the Southern Song Dynasty slang term 便當 (pinyin: biàndāng), meaning "convenient" or "convenience." When imported to Japan, it was written with the ateji 便道, 辨道, and 辨當. In shinjitai, 辨 當 is written as 弁当.

In the 20th century, the term was imported to modern Mandarin, rendered as 便當 (pinyin: biàndāng), where it retains its older meaning of "convenient" and also refers to bento in mainland China and generic boxed lunches in Taiwan.

[Thanks to June Teufel Dreyer, Linda Chance, and Frank Chance]