Gairaigo
Gairaigo (外来語) is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word," and indicates a transliteration (or "transvocalization") into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a modern Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese.
Most gairaigo are derived from English; others come from French and German, among others. Gairaigo, while making Japanese easier to learn for foreign students in some cases, can also cause problems due to independent semantic progression. For example, sutoubu from English "stove" does not mean a cooking appliance as many Americans would expect, but rather a space heater; the Japanese meaning is derived from the British meaning of "a heat-producing device". The Japanese term for a cooking stove is another gairaigo term, renji, from English "range"—a gas stove is a gasurenji. Additionally, Japanese combine words in ways that are uncommon in English. As an example, left over is a baseball term for a hit that goes over the left-fielder's head, rather than food uneaten at the end of the meal.
In written Japanese, gairaigo are almost exclusively written in katakana, but not always. Some commonly used loanwords can also be written in hiragana, e.g. tabako (たばこ) = tobacco.
Some gairaigo are shortened forms of the original foreign language word. For example, depāto (デパート) = department store. Portmanteaus, such as wāpuro (ワープロ) for "word processor", are common. Karaoke, a combination of the Japanese word kara and the clipped form oke of the English loanword "orchestra", is a portmanteau that has entered the English language.
Some gairaigo words have been reborrowed into their original source languages, particularly in the jargon of fans of Japanese entertainment. For example, anime is gairaigo derived from the word "animation", but has been reborrowed into English with the meaning of "animation from Japan". Similarly, puroresu derives from "professional wrestling", and has been adopted by English-speaking wrestling fans as a term for the style of pro wrestling performed in Japan.
Common examples of gairaigo
| Gairaigo | Language | Source word | Translation
|
| annui | French | ennui | ennui, boredom
|
| apāto | English | apartment | apartment, flat
|
| arubaito | German | arbeit | part-time job
|
| depāto | English | department store | department store
|
| ikura | Russian | Икра; ikra | salmon roe (sushi)
|
| tabako | Portuguese | tabaco | tobacco
|
| pan | Portuguese | pão | bread
|
| mobairu | English | mobile | cell phone, PDA
|
