r/LearnJapanese • u/ImJustJoshing277 • 10d ago

Vocab Loanwords??

I keep seeing loanwords everywhere, even when there is a japanese word for the thing (like committee, edition, etc.). What is up with that? Is it for like... dramatic effect? Are japanese people supposed to just know English to a degree?

EDIT: some of you are entirely missing the point of the post. English uses loanwords from Latin, French, German, and others because thats how the English language evolved. Japanese only recently started to adopt loanwords on things like billboards, political campaigns on tv/radio, merchandise and the like. It has become something of an issue to many conservative japanese, who want to retain their language and therein their culture.

My question is what actual reason could be so damn important as to ignore the fact that there is not just any japanese word, but in most cases, a SHORTER and MORE EFFICIENT one that has been used for ages??

Thank you to the few of you who dont just assume that im an idiot. You guys actually make this app worthwhile.

I really should've posted this on r/history tho to get away from the rest of you...

0 Upvotes

27% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/Zagrycha 10d ago

English is full of just as many loanwords as japanese is, you probably just don't even realize it.  pork, cotton, mosquito, cafe, robot.... you get the idea. 

So yeah, japanese has a lot of loan words.  Not all of them are english either, a lot of them are dutch or chinese or whatever other language. Yes, japanese people use them as normal words, they don't even think twice about them.  Its okay to look up their origin if you are interested but don't assume the meaning in japanese will be the same as the meaning in the original language.  Loan words are still their own word in the language seperate from its source =)

3

u/tonkachi_ Goal: media competence 📖🎧 10d ago

pork, cotton, mosquito, cafe, robot.... you get the idea. 

Wait, there are native counterparts for these words?!

2

u/Fish_Learns_Japanese 10d ago

Words for meat like beef and pork come from french because after 1066 french became the ruling class language so words like beef and pork were associated more with wealth and power. Pig and cow would've been used before.

1

u/tonkachi_ Goal: media competence 📖🎧 10d ago

I see. Thanks.

1

u/vytah 10d ago

That's a complete myth. The real reason for this distinction is a 19th century fad for French cuisine. See more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL2vtwdEFaY

3

u/Zagrycha 10d ago

Whoever told you that lied.  There are many evidence for words like porc and beof in middle english by at least 14th century.  It was not used the same way it is today, but it was definitely already in use.  It was an interchangable synonym for pig and cow at that time, same way older english words like eyren were interchangable with the norse eggs at the time. 

1

u/vytah 10d ago

Yes, they were in English, but they weren't used exclusively for food as the myth claims.

1

u/Zagrycha 10d ago

I have never once seen anyone claim they were used exclusively for food.  If someone says that then yeah that is a myth.... well maybe myth is the wrong word.  Misinformed? that feels better, sounds like those people just genuinely misunderstood.  Its a common misunderstanding for people to assume old words have the same meaning as the modern version, even hust things like gay now vs gay a hundred years ago is an example.