Sino-Japanese Vocabulary - Words 'Made in Japan'

Words 'Made in Japan'

While much Sino-Japanese vocabulary was borrowed from Chinese, a considerable amount was created by the Japanese themselves as they coined new words using Sino-Japanese forms. These are known as wasei kango (和製漢語?, Japanese-created kango); compare to wasei eigo (和製英語?, Japanese-borrowed English).

The best-known example is the prolific numbers of kango coined during the Meiji era on the model of Classical Chinese to translate modern concepts imported from the West. These words include 科学 kagaku ('science'), 社会 shakai ('society'), 自動車 jidōsha ('automobile'), 電話 denwa ('telephone') and a host of other basic words. The use of Chinese elements to form words in Japanese is akin to the way that English and other European words are formed using Greek and Latin elements, known as classical compounds, such as the English word "telephone", which was created from the Greek morphemes tele ('far') and phone ('sound'). The Japanese formation 電話 denwa means 'electric' + 'talk'. Much of this vocabulary was borrowed back into Chinese around the turn of the 20th century and is now used indistinguishably from native Chinese vocabulary. Many of these words have also been borrowed into Korean and Vietnamese, forming (a modern Japanese) part of their Sino-Korean and Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies.

Many Japanese-created kango refer to uniquely Japanese concepts. Examples include daimyō (大名), waka (和歌), haiku (俳句), geisha (芸者), chōnin (町人), matcha (抹茶), sencha (煎茶), washi (和紙), jūdō (柔道), kendō (剣道), Shintō (神道), shōgi (将棋), dōjō (道場), and seppuku (切腹).

Another miscellaneous group of words were coined from Japanese phrases or crossed over from kun'yomi to on'yomi. Examples include henji (返事 meaning 'reply', from native 返り事 kaerigoto 'reply'), rippuku (立腹 'become angry', based on 腹が立つ hara ga tatsu, literally 'stomach stands up'), shukka (出火 'fire starts or breaks out', based on 火が出る hi ga deru), and ninja (忍者 from 忍びの者 shinobi-no-mono meaning 'person of stealth'). In Chinese, the same combinations of characters are often meaningless or have a different meaning. Even a humble expression like gohan (ご飯 or 御飯 'cooked rice') is a pseudo-kango and not found in Chinese. One interesting example that gives itself away as a Japanese coinage is kaisatsu-guchi (改札口 literally 'check ticket gate'), meaning the ticket barrier at a railway station.

Finally, quite a few words appear to be Sino-Japanese but are varied in origin, written with ateji (当て字)— kanji assigned without regard for etymology. In many cases, the characters were chosen only to indicate pronunciation. For example, sewa ('care, concern') is written 世話, using the on'yomi "se" + "wa" ('household/society' + 'talk'); although this word is not Sino-Japanese but a native Japanese word believed to derive from sewashii, meaning 'busy' or 'troublesome'; the written form "世話" is simply an attempt to assign plausible-looking characters pronounced "se" and "wa". Other ateji of this type include 面倒 mendō ('face' + 'fall down' = 'bother, trouble') and 野暮 yabo ('fields' + 'livelihood' = 'uncouth'). (The first gloss after each character roughly translates the kanji; the second is the meaning of the word in Japanese.)