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2Contact with Other Languages

Linguistic isolation

Another point we notice about Japanese when it is compared to other languages is that it has very little direct contact with them. In other words, the region where Japanese is spoken is completely different from the regions where other languages are spoken. To be more specific, very few Japanese people speak languages other than Japanese.

It is said that Queen Cleopatra of ancient Egypt used eight different languages to entertain state guests, and President Tito of Yugoslavia reportedly speaks seven languages. Japanese are struck with admiration when they hear such stories. In such small countries in Europe as Switzerland, it is very common to hear people speaking two or three different languages. Father W. A. Grotaas, a scholar in Eastern languages residing in Japan, says that during the annual national census in his homeland Belgium, there is an accompanying questionnaire asking what languages a person can speak. There are very few people in Japan who speak any language besides Japanese, perhaps one in ten or twenty thousand. This does not necessarily apply only to Japan. There must be exceedingly few people in the world who can speak Japanese in addition to other languages. They are chiefly those who live in Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, and Hawaii. In Japan, a person like Hattori Shir, who can speak more than ten languages, is called a linguistic genius. Such a person is an exception among exceptions.

In brief, Japanese occupies a clearly defined linguistic region, and within that sphere functions in good order—a characteristic that should not be overlooked.

“Degeneration” of the language

Since Japanese functions with hardly any contact with other languages, one would expect it to possess special characteristics. Theoretically, one would suppose Japanese to receive little influence from and assert little influence on other languages. At present, many so-called intellectuals and cultured people take every opportunity to complain that Japanese has degenerated. They worry as if the Japanese people would perish unless urgent measures were taken. But their fears are, as they were from the start, quite unnecessary, for Japanese is not so easily influenced. Actually, a careful look reveals more instances of firmness than frailty.

For example, the word “Christmas” was introduced from English. The Japanese write it kurisumasu in katakana and use it that way. There are people who say that kurisumasu is a foreign word, but those very people pronounce it ku-ri-su-ma-su, inserting three u’s which are not in the English word at all. Far from speaking English, they are pronouncing a word changed to conform to Japanese standards of pronunciation. The power of assimilation exhibited here is astonishing. Linguist Shibata Takeshi hopes that Japanese will eventually change its sound system under the increased influence of Western words,¹ but his expectation seems unlikely to be realized.

According to American linguist Mario Pei, the natives of Hawaii cannot pronounce the sound s or the consonants by themselves without attaching vowels to them. So when they want to say, “Christmas in December,” they say kekemapa kalikimaka.² It is surprising to learn that kekemapa is an imitation of “December,” and kalikimaka of “Christmas.” However, an American would likely find little difference between the Japanese kurisumasu with three u’s and the Hawaiian kalikimaka.

Before the war, when there were a great many Japanese in Manchuria, it is said that when a wife of a Japanese offcial wanted to buy some vegetables from a Chinese grocer, she would say something like the following:

Nde tfu to iiyande shsh katai katai, meiy? Don’t you have the thing that looks like tfu (bean-curd) but is a little harder? (She is asking for konnyaku, a starchy, jelly food.

(Nde, iiyande, meiy are Japanized Chinese words.)

Nde chaga daikon naka tonneru yde. Pshin. This radish is hard and fibrous and not good, so make it cheaper. (Nde, chaga, yde, pshin are Japanized Chinese.)³

If people carried on conversations like this one everywhere in Japan, both the Japanese and Chinese languages would go to ruin. Or if all the Japanese were like the Japanese in Hawaii, most of whom are able to use both Japanese and English, Japanese would surely be greatly influenced by English. But actually Japanese is not. In fact we can say that most languages of the world other than Japanese are in a far more unstable condition.

Ogata Tomio articulated the following point in a round-table discussion, and I think it is worth heeding.

The disorderly state of languages is common all over the world. The United States is very much concerned about it, saying it enviesEngland. But the English, too, say their language is in disorder. It’s really a common problem everywhere.⁴

The Japanese language is said to be in disorder, but unlike many languages this state of disorderliness came from within. This problem will be discussed in the next chapter.

Influence from foreign languages

The Japanese language has had little contact with other languages because the people did not move after they had migrated to the Japanese islands and, until the last war, had not been invaded by other peoples. Consequently, it is quite natural that Japanese was not influenced by other languages. It should be noted that only in its contact with Chinese did Japanese receive a great influence — especially on its vocabulary. However, it should be kept in mind that this direct influence from Chinese occurred hundreds of years ago, and that there has been no such influence since.

We can divide the Japanese vocabulary which we use today into Yamato words; jiongo or Chinese character words; Western words; and the compounds of and words transformed from these words. Western words have been introduced chiefly from Europe since the 17th century and are commonly written in katakana. Chinese character words are those introduced directly or indirectly from China since the introduction of Chinese culture in ancient times, or are words contrived in Japan through imitation. Chinese character words are commonly written in kanji (Chinese characters). Yamato words are either words that existed before other word-types had entered Japan, or else words subsequently based on them. Chinese character words represent sixty to seventy percent of the total vocabulary, according to the Dainihon Kokugo Jiten (The Large Japanese Dictionary).⁵ Hayashi ki, a Japanese linguist, says that if nouns and verbs appearing in the newspapers were statistically analyzed, more than forty percent would be Chinese character words⁶—a noteworthy figure. In this sense we may say that Japanese is a language with a great many words of foreign origin.

In this respect Japanese contrasts with Chinese, German, and French, which have few words of foreign origin. The following languages are said to be rich in words of foreign origin: English (from French and other languages), Korean (from Chinese), Vietnamese (Chinese), Thai (Indian), Persian (Arabian), and Turkish (Arabian and Iranian).

Why did Japanese adopt many foreign words? Umegaki Minoru, an authority on words of foreign origin, gives the following reasons:

(1)	There was a propensity in the Japanese character to adopt foreign culture.
(2)	The Japanese language has qualities that facilitate adopting foreign words. For example, the lack of inflection in nouns.
(3)	When Japan adopted Chinese characters (for Japan did not possess its own writing system), Chinese terms naturally entered the language.
(4)	As foreign culture was more advanced than Japanese culture, the people felt loan words superior to indigenous terms.

Chinese character words—merits and demerits

At any rate, Japanese was greatly influenced by Chinese in the past. As a result, a large number of Chinese character words and similar character words coined in Japan have entered the vocabulary. This phenomenon parallels the pervasive influence of ancient Chinese culture on the lives of the Japanese.

In what ways did Japanese change with the introduction of Chinese vocabulary?

In the first place, it became possible to express abstract ideas which had been hitherto inexpressible. “Loyalty , “filial piety” , and “humanity and justice” are representative examples. This was a thing to be grateful for.

In the second place, expressions which had once necessitated many Yamato words became short and crisp. For example, before the introduction of Chinese character words, the Japanese expression for eleven was towo amari fitotu (one more than ten) and for twelve it was towo amari futatu (two more than ten). These became jichi and jni.

When such words as i (stomach), ch (intestines), and kakuran (cholera) were first introduced, the Japanese translated them as: monohami (food container) for stomach; kuso bukuro (a bag for excrement) for intestines; and kuchi yori shiri yori koku yamai (a disease that breaks through mouth and bottom) for cholera. All these can be found in the Chinese-character dictionary of the Heian period (794–1160), Ruiju Mygish.⁷ The Japanese translations of these words, however, failed to gain popular usage. For one thing, people felt that medical expressions should be foreign and important-looking. But more than that, it was probably because Yamato words were long and cumbersome.

This reasoning can also be applied to the great number of Chinese character words coined as translations for European words in the Meiji period. For instance, some poets referred to tetsud (railroad) as kurogane no michi (a road of black iron) and denshin (telegram) as harigane dayori (communication through wire), each of which was quite a mouthful. In this respect, too, we are grateful for Chinese character words.

In the third place, the Chinese character word strongly influenced Japanese through its own characteristic sound system. Literary critic Kamei Katsuichir (1907–66) says, quoting from Hagiwara Sakutar’s writings:

Although the Yamato words are exceedingly elegant, they are too weak to express strong emotions like anger, distress, and jealousy. The Yamato words lack elements that express such accents, but a strong emphasis can be attained by using Chinese characterwords. Through the simplicity and strength of these words, we can express human emotions effectively.⁸

The Chinese character word has thus contributed to the development of the Japanese language. On the debit side, however, it has unfortunately encouraged the proliferation of homonyms and the creation of expressions that need to be seen in their written forms to be understood. Sweden’s Bernhard Karlgren, a Chinese linguist, talks about the strange fact that since homonyms abound in Chinese, sometimes one cannot make himself understood orally and must write out the words. This is all the more true with Japanese. The following exchange is not a mere creation by a novelist, but a typical example of what happens every day in the life of a Japanese:

Son: Father, to you a love affair is only a kind of shk (disgraceful conduct), isn’t it?

Father: Shk?

Son: Sh as in shaku (ugliness).⁹

Furthermore, Chinese character words entered Japan where Yamato words had already existed, so an enormous number of synonyms developed. Hayashi ki counts this richness a special feature of Japanese. Indeed, we have Yamato synonyms for Chinese character words—exceedingly formal words—such as ky for konnichi (today), asu for mynichi (tomorrow), and asatte for mygonichi (day after tomorrow). This phenomenon has become a burden to the memory. Okamoto Chimatar gives examples such as the above in his book Nihongo no Hihanteki Ksatsu (A Critical Study of Japanese), and says, “Is this richness really something we can boast of, or something to regret because of the double and triple burdens it imposes on us? At any rate we hope they can be put in better order by reducing their number.”¹⁰

It should also be noted that of the two, Yamato words and Chinese character words, the latter more frequently have favorable connotations and give pleasing impressions. Thus, a barber (tokoya san) is not satisfied if he is not called a rihatsugy (hairdresser), and when we go to a department store and ask, “Where are the omocha (toys) sold?” the clerk might respond, “Do you mean the gangu (plaything) department?”

The following senry (satirical verse)* illustrates the point:

Shitsunen to It sounds better

ieba kikiyoi To say “lapse of memory”

monowasure. Rather than “forgetfulness.”

There are many other similar verses:

Sakkaku to It sounds better

ieba kikiyoi To say “an erroneous perception”

kanchigai. Rather than “a misunderstanding.”

Such depreciation of Yamato words has been foolish.

Moreover, when the Chinese character words displaced Yamato words, it was not done thoroughly, so in some cases the sphere of influence is divided. On the whole, this has resulted in an asymmetric system. For example, in counting persons we say hitori (one person), futari (two persons), sannin (three persons), yottari or yonin (four persons), gonin (five persons). Likewise, in counting days we say ichinichi (one day), futsuka (two days), and mikka (three days).^† I think it would be better to reserve the Yamato words hitori and futari for special cases such as “bachelorhood” or “a young couple” respectively, and to use the Chinese character words for numerals in general.

Originally the ren’y (continuative) form* of verbs of Yamato words could form nouns, but the introduction of Chinese character words nipped this development in the bud. Linguist Izui Hisanosuke says: “The noun form for the verb kuu (to eat) or taberu (to eat) is now usually shokuji and that for yomu (to read) is usually tokusho or etsudoku.”

Several years ago, when I took part in the editing of NHK’s Nango Iikae Sh (Anthology of Simplified Terms fordifficult Words), the chairman asked, “How can we say insotsu (to lead a party) in some other way?” I said, “Tsurete aruku will be all right, won’t it?” “No, I mean the noun insotsu,” he said. I was at a loss for an answer as it would not look right to say tsurete aruki^† (taking along). It seems we cannot avoid retaining the word insotsu after all. Insotsu-sha (the person who leads a party of people), also seems to have no counterpart in Yamato words.

Chinese character words—what shall we do with them?

One of the fascinating things about Chinese character words is that they offer the possibility of combining a number of word roots to form innumerable new words. Sports editors create baseball terms like kaish (an outstanding victory), rakush (an easy victory), shinsh (a narrow victory), sampai (a crushing defeat), and sekihai (a regrettable defeat). To describe the pitching, they have created such words as kky (a good pitch), akky (a wild pitch), kant (pitching the whole game), and shitt (a bad pitch). Recently such expressions as zekkky (a great pitch) and myt (a fine pitch) have appeared. The remarkable thing is that people understand the meaning if they see the written characters. We combine shgakk (elementary school) and chgakk (middle school) and call this shchgakk, and when we want to express the plural of kikan (organs), we say shokikan. Such tricks as these are possible only with Chinese character words.

In short, Chinese character words have many good points, and it would be unwise policy to heedlessly decrease them. Then, what measures should we take?

The first thing that recommends itself is the borrowing of Western words without translating them one by one into Chinese character words. Many people of nationalistic persuasion would object to such a policy. However, although we say we are borrowing foreign words, we have always first Japanized the words thoroughly. When the Japanese say rajio for the English word “radio,” the word they are using is something quite different from the original. It is no longer English or any other language; it is genuine Japanese.

Secondly, we must get rid of the idea that names of things should look important. You go to a library, for example. You are given a card called etsuran-hy (a perusal slip) at the entrance. On it you write your name and the name of the book you want to read, and take it to the etsuran-gakari (perusal clerk). The books you borrowed are to be taken to the room called etsuran-shitsu (reading room), where you read. There may be some charm in thedifficult word etsuran, but we can easily say tokusho-shitsu (reading room) for etsuranshitsu. As etsuran-gakari refers to someone who does not actually do the reading himself, this name is awkward. It had better be changed to kashidashi-gakari (a lending clerk). Etsuran-hy can be changed to mshikomi-hy (application slip) or it can simply be called kdo (card), for no other card is used in the library. If this can be done, there will be no need to use thedifficult Chinese character word etsuran. Ridiculously enough, the use of Chinese character words up to now reveals the feeling in Japan that names should lookdifficult and important.

What we call mugen-kid (endless track; a Chinese character word) in Japanese is Raupenkette in German, which, if translated literally, means imomushi-gusari (caterpillar chain; a Yamato word). The coiner of mugen-kid will probably not be satisfied if we use the term imomushi-gusari. We do not expect to go so far, but we would like to coin new words with popular connotations in the same spirit. As Kuwabara Takeo¹¹ has said, it is better to call a thermometer a netsu-hakari (a measure for fever) than ken’onki (temperature-detecting instrument), for the former, composed of Yamato words, is more simple, homely, and easy to understand than the latter, which is composed of stiff Chinese characters which aredifficult to comprehend unless you see them written. And, for the same reason, tmegane (literally, distance-viewing glasses) is a better term for binoculars than sganky.

Thirdly, in order to avoid the disadvantages of Chinese character words, those composed of two characters should, after careful selection, be treated as words understandable on the same level as Yamato words. On the other hand, the formation of new words by combining two one-character words should be avoided as much as possible. In the library there is a catalogue called kemmei mokuroku (item-name catalogue). The word kemmei is hard to understand. Kanda Hideo, director of Ueno Library, says he wants to change it to shudai-betsu mokuroku (catalogue classified by subjects). I agree with him—that would be easier to understand.

The reason why character words are often hard to understand is that new words are formed by indiscriminately combining two one-character words. The word shk noted above is an example. Therefore, with the exception of words often used as prefixes and suffxes, we should avoid the creation of new words as much as possible. And even those which are used as prefixes and suffxes should be reduced. For example, the sound sho, as a prefix, stands for “many” , “first” , and “the fact” . It is best to retain only the meaning “many” and stop using the other meanings. The word shoshin (one’s belief ) with the prefix sho can be replaced by shin-nen and similarly, we can replace the word shokan (one’s impression) with kans . Shotaimen (the first meeting) and shonanoka (the seventh day after a person’s death) could be read hatsu-taimen and hatsu-nanoka respectively. If this is done, one will immediately understand upon hearing sho . . . that it is a plural of something. Thus, it will be very convenient. Even in this case, we should try as much as possible to put the prefix sho on the character words already in existence. Among the character words in Japanese, we find a large number of words that require three or four kana for transcription. No wonder there are so many words of the same sound. The proposals I have stated here—(1) to stop making new words by combining single-character words, (2) to retain only a few prefix-like words, and to attach these only to the already existing unmistakable character words —will be helpful in overcoming the difficulty.

The influence of Japanese on foreign languages

As stated above, the Japanese language has been greatly influenced by a foreign language, that is, Chinese. But the influence exerted on other languages by Japanese has been exceedingly slight—something rare in the language of a civilized country. H. G. Wells says: “. . . her secluded civilization has not contributed very largely to the general shaping of human destinies; she has received much, but she has given little.”¹² The Japanese language, too, though it has received many loanwords from all over the world, has made few contributions to other languages.

According to Ichikawa Sanki, Japanese loanwords in European languages are “bonze,” “inro,” “fune,” “rickshaw,” “kimono,” “soy,” “bushido,” “harakiri,” “geisha,” “Korea” (from Krai), “moxa,” “tenno,” “judo,” and others, which are mostly names of social structures peculiar to Japan or of things related to the unique arts and customs of Japan. “Kimonoed” means to be dressed in a kimono—thus, “kimono” can also be used as a verb. Perhaps these are the most common Japanese loanwords.

During the U.S. occupation of Japan a great many Japanese words were picked up by the Americans. In the new-words section of the New Webster’s Dictionary, I note the addition of “nisei,” “kamikaze,” “zaibatsu,” and “geta.” They are all words related to Japanese culture.

It is the language of our northern neighbor, Ainu, that has been influenced most by the Japanese language, followed by the languages of our western and southern neighbors, namely, the indigenous inhabitants of Taiwan, the Koreans, and the Chinese.

Ainu essentially has strong verb inflection according to person. For example, different forms of verbs are used in the sentences “I catch a bear” and “He catches a bear.” Japanese verbs do not make such changes. Thus, when first speaking Ainu, the Japanese used Ainu forms for person so poorly that it is said that part of the Ainu verb inflection has been lost.¹³ Moreover it is said that Ainu is not only becoming Japanized but the entire language is perishing under the weight of Japanese. This is perhaps an example of the greatest influence Japanese has had on another language.

Both Korean and the language of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan have borrowed many Japanese cultural terms. Ogura Shimpei has listed examples of Yamato loanwords in his book, Chsengo Hgen no Kenky (A Study of Korean Dialects).¹⁴

As for the influence of Japanese on Chinese, an article by Kuraishi Takeshir called “Japanese Words that Became Chinese”¹⁵ maintains that the largest number of Japanese loanwords pertain to economics (e.g., nakagainin [broker] and torihiki [transactions]). Next in number are words relating to law and lawsuits, such as bengoshi (lawyer) and mshitate (declaration; testimony). They reveal the nature of the historical relationship between China and Japan. Besides these words, Wang Yun-wu’s large dictionary gives the following as words introduced from Japanese: (the other party), (standpoint), (convenience), (speech), (letter), and (occasion). What must be noted, however, is that these words have not been adopted into Chinese with the Japanese pronunciation. The word nakagainin, for example, has become zhongmairen, and aite has become xiang-shou. That is to say, these Japanese-created Chinese character words are taken into Chinese but assigned Chinese pronunciation. Therefore, we must say that it is not the spoken Japanese language that they have adopted, but the written one.

Thus, there is hardly any real introduction of Japanese into the Chinese language. A rare example appears in Kuo Mo-jo’s childhood reminiscences of how, during gymnastics in elementary school, the teacher commanded, Kiotsuke, migimuke migi! (Attention! Right turn!). This was a real adoption of Japanese. However, this practice existed for only a short period of time in a certain locality. Right after the Sino-Japanese War, China, in trying to become a modern state, invited constitutional scholars from Japan to help establish the first Chinese constitution. Sanet Keish, a student of Chinese literature, says that among the technical terms used on this occasion were tetsuzuki (procedure) and torikeshi (cancellation), which were pronounced as Yamato words.¹⁶ Of this, too, nothing now remains. The influence of Japanese on Chinese was exceedingly slight.

Footnotes

*Seventeen-syllable form, the same as haiku.

^†Hitori, futari, yottari, futsuka, and mikka are Yamato words. Sannin, yonin, gonin, and ichinichi are Chinese character words.

* A form linked to verbs and adjectives, e.g., sakichiru (bloomingly fall), in which saki is the ren’y form of saku (to bloom) and modifies chiru (to fall).

^†This is the ren’y form of tsurete-aruku (to take along) and was used as a noun equivalent in ancient times.