Общество "Россия-Япония":
http://ru-jp.org/

Vladimir Alpatov
Doctor of Philology,
Deputy Director, Institute of Oriental Studies

WHY DO THE JAPANESE NEED GAIRAIGO?

The issue of contemporary Japanese gairaigo, or borrowings from western languages, particularly English, is generally well researched in Japan, and in the West, and in our country. There are dictionaries of gairaigo, and statistical studies of their frequencies of occurrence, and detailed descriptions of their grammatical and phonetic particularities, and analyses of their stylistic characteristics. But an array of problems still demands understanding. In particular, one needs to figure out what place they occupy in Japanese culture, what are their particularities in comparison with borrowings in other languages. Not very much has been written about that, although one should note a discussion carried out by Asahi newspaper already two decades ago (Nihongo 1983) and a recent book by Loveday (Loveday 1996).

The role of gairaigo in the life of today's Japanese is connected with at least two paradoxes. The first is in the discrepancy between the relatively small number of gairaigo in Japanese texts (according to statistical studies, they account for no more than one-tenth of words) and their important role in the daily linguistic functioning of the Japanese.

Ten percent of the vocabulary is not such a big figure. See, for example, a remark by Japanese expert from Sri Lanka D. A. Rajakaruna that in his native Sinhalese language there are more borrowings from English that there are in Japanese (Soto 1985:135). But in very many languages borrowings are mostly limited to literary vocabulary, which is familiar to a comparatively small group of people. For another big class of borrowings in the Japanese language, kango, or borrowings from Chinese, this rule generally holds. Not so with gairaigo. According to statistical studies, among commonly used Japanese words, gairaigo make up no less than 13 percent. (Honna 1995:45; Stanlaw 1992:61). That is, this percentage is higher than in the Japanese vocabulary as a whole. But even among the more rare gairaigo, very many are constantly heard or seen in newspapers, magazines, on television, in shops, streets sings etc. In the majority of purely literary texts, there are actually not so many of them. Along with the high percentage of gairaigo in commonly used Japanese vocabulary, they are strongly marked by their genre association. Many researchers have already written about that, including the author of the present report (Alpatov 1985; Alpatov 1988: 88-94; Areshidze, Alpatov 1991). Let us cite the facts that have been summarized in the book by L. Loveday, and which are generally consistent with what has been written by other authors in the past half-century. There are few gairaigo in official documents, newspaper articles (especially those about Japan), humanities and liberal arts publications; their number is insignificant in political, religious, legal vocabulary and in vocabulary referring to abstract concepts as a whole. (Loveday 1996:85-89). The role of gairaigo is more noticeable in the sphere of technology and sciences, although in these areas there are also a lot of kango. But already in business administration terminology, gairaigo make up 35 percent, in marketing 75 percent, among commerce terms 80 percent, in computer terminology a whole 99 percent. (Loveday 1996: 101-103). And exceptionally high the percentage of gairaigo is in the sphere of mass use, where it has been constantly growing in the past decades. (Loveday 1996: 106-111). The spheres of sports, pop music, cookery, fashion etc. (excepting, of course, the areas of traditional national style such as sumo and kimono) are almost completely serviced by gairaigo. A huge number of them are found, for example, in women's and youth magazines (Hayashi 1997: 364; Loveday 1996: 200-202), in tourism advertisements (Martinez 1990: 99) and so on. As is well known, the accepted practice is to write gairaigo in one of the Japanese alphabets, katakana; and therefore texts dealing with consumer spheres appear to consist almost entirely of katakana, with the sole exception of grammatical elements, the necessary minimum of verbs, and Japanese proper names (the latter are also sometimes written in katakana). There is even the term "katakana professions," that is those serving prestigious consumer spheres: interior designer, high-fashion designer etc. (Tanaka 1990: 90).

Here is one example cited by L. Loveday (Loveday 1996: 88-89). Even in Japanese Christianity there are very few gairaigo. Leaving aside personal names, it is almost only kurisumasu 'Christmas', a term not so much religious as commercial. True, there are very few Christians in Japan, but every Japanese in December comes across Christmas trade, puts up a Christmas tree at home or at least sees one in a public place and so on. Cf. derivatives listed in dictionaries: kurisumasu-dina: 'Christmas dinner', kurisumasu-ka:do 'Christmas card', kurisumasu-pa:ti 'Christmas party', kurisumasu-tsuri: 'Christmas tree'. (Big Japanese-Russian dictionary, 1: 518). All these are everyday or commercial terms. Plus, the second component of each term is also derived from English, although it would seem that there are "own" Japanese words for the corresponding notions.

So, gairaigo are mostly words with specific meanings, which leads to the fact that the vast majority of them are nouns, there are few other parts of speech among them. Gairaigo of the past half-century are almost entirely borrowed from American English. By their content, they belong mostly to the consumer sphere, or to the sphere of contemporary high technology. In language styles that had developed in the pre-war period, gairaigo are rare and their number is not significantly increasing, but still more new styles are being formed with a large number of gairaigo. (Kabashima 1983: 83).

In the spheres for which gairaigo are characteristic, they have a tendency to expand. Many cases are well known when competition between gairaigo and kango or a native Japanese word (wago) ends with the victory of the former: milk is now called miruku, and not gyu:nyu:, a department store is a depa:to, not a hyakkaten. The reverse (in contrast to the 1930s-1940s) never happens. Take another example. In Russian-Japanese dictionaries, at least four words are listed as equivalents for the Russian word meaning 'refusal': wago kotowari and kango kyozetsu, jitai, and funinka. But the rejection, or cancellation, by a customer of a purchase that has already been made can only be kyanseru (< cancel) and nothing else.

In the past, quasi-synonymous gairaigo and wago (or kango) were contrasted in accordance with the feature of "Western style - Japanese style." Now such definiteness may have been lost because gairaigo means something that has become purely Japanese. (Kabashima 1983: 114-115). For example, raisu no longer means 'rice cooked European-style', it can be rice (as a dish) cooked in any way, while gohan and meshi still mean 'rice cooked Japanese-style'. (Passin 1980: 52).

There are also frequent cases when gairaigo is associated with modernity and prestige, while its quasi-synonym with backwardness and even poverty. A modern photo camera can only be kamera, but an old-fashioned plate camera, of the kind that even now stand in Russian photo laboratories, is still shashinki. The kango shakkin 'loan' is associated with poverty and a lack of ethics, and is less preferable that the gairaigo ro:n. (Honna 1995: 53). The following pair of neologisms is indicative: nyu:-ritchi 'new rich' (pure gairaigo) and nyu:-bimbo: 'new poor' (the second part is kango). (Tobin 1992: 19).

All of this is an effect of both international globalization processes, linked in the linguistic sphere with the expansion of the English language (including through borrowings), and with a very characteristic for Japan, as a country "catching up" in its development, inferiority complex in the face of everything that comes from "old" developed countries, particularly from the United States. Here is an example, which we have already cited (Alpatov 1988: 91). At a festival of traditional Japanese dance (an event designed for the Japanese), an advertisement of a Japanese-produced motorcycle was written in English, in Latin script. (Only the name of the model - naturally gairaigo - was written in katakana). In the short text, the word "American" appeared twice. And this despite the fact that in those years (1984) the quality of Japanese motorcycles was undoubtedly considered superior to American ones! In Japanese advertising, statements that this of that product is better than an American one (even if this is true) are generally untypical; more effective are proclamations that this product is the same or almost the same as a American one. The cultural and linguistic inferiority complex of the Japanese has also been noted by Western observers (Tobin 1992: 31). It existed in the mid-1980s, when even in the United States the prospects of Japan's possible victory in economic competition were a subject of serious discussion. Now, when Japan has fallen farther behind the United States, this complex could not but increase.

In connection with this, the constant complaints, including in the press, by older Japanese about the profusion of gairaigo still do not reflect the dominant public opinion. Occasionally taken measures, especially in the official institutions and on television, to limit gairaigo can at most slow down the process of their spread. It does not follow from this, naturally, that in the foreseeable future they will become prevalent in the language. Kabashima Tadao, coming from an extrapolation into the future of contemporary trends, predicted that gairaigo would make up about half of Japanese words in 500 years or so. (Kabashima 1983: 73).

Such complexes are certainly not limited to Japan. But in many countries their existence together with the process of globalization leads not so much to the Americanization of their own languages, as to the inculcation of English. But here we come across a second paradox. Along with the large number of gairaigo in the linguistic life of a Japanese and along with the prestige of English, the level of the command of English in Japan is not high.

English is taught one way or another in about 99 percent of Japanese middle and high schools (Loveday 1996: 96); an examination in this language is among entrance examinations in Japanese universities. Any Japanese knows some English words and phrases; this undoubtedly facilitates the spread of gairaigo. But this does not mean a command of the language even on the level of holding a basic conversation with an American, much less reading a simple English text. One international study of the level of the command of English in the world placed Japan at fourth place from last, below Iran, Ethiopia, Indonesia. (Honna 1995: 58; Loveday 1996: 99).

These data may seem too extreme. But they are supported by other studies, including polls. One such poll was carried out by L. Loveday. Practically all of the 461 respondents had at some point studied English, but 54 percent said they don't know the language, most of the others had only passive knowledge of it, because only 9 percent use it at work, 5 percent speak it with friends, 0.4 percent use it at home. (Loveday 1996: 175-176). So one cannot seriously speak about Japanese-English bilinguialism. Among the reasons for this, researchers cite a low level of instruction, outdated methodology, a formal nature of examinations etc. (Loveday 1996: 98; Miller 1982: 219-254). But still the main reason is a lack of motivation. English in schools is one of the most unpopular subjects. (Loveday 1996: 98). And this is connected with the fact that the majority of students don't know why they will need it in future. The only more or less serious motivation is preparation for college entrance examinations. (Loveday 1996: 96). And after that, a Japanese, unless he works for a foreign trade company or is connected with service to foreigners, will usually never use English, forgetting even what he had studied. Among the 9 percent of respondents who said they use English at work, the majority stated that they only rarely read in that language. The spread of bilinguialism has not even been helped by increasing foreign travel by the Japanese during the past decades: they usually go abroad in groups with interpreters. (Loveday 1996: 99).

When summarizing all that, researchers usually reach the conclusion that along with the high prestige of English in Japan, the lack of knowledge of that language does not create any difficulties in life. (Yamamoto 1995: 80). And if this is so, it is unlikely that in the foreseeable future the Japanese will have a better mastery of English than they do now. (Loveday 1996: 181; Honna 1995: 57).

How can one explain such a gap between reverence toward English and the passivity in the study of it? The well-known Japanese social linguist Suzuki Takao has written about that. In his view, Japanese society is one of the most open to foreign things and ideas, but at the same time it has always been, and remains, marked by difficulties in communicating with foreigners. In his words, the Japanese are not xenophobes but xenophygs, or people who avoid foreigners. (Suzuki 1987: 141). Suzuki notes another feature of the Japanese culture: selectiveness; along with the tendency toward borrowings, the Japanese take from other cultures only those elements they consider necessary for themselves; this took place, including in language, both during Sinoization and during the continuing epoch of Americanization. (Suzuki 1987: 143). Similar ideas were also developed by L. Loveday, who compared the infiltration of kango in the past and of gairaigo at present. As he points out, in most cases mass borrowing from one language into another is connected with mass bilingualism among the speakers of the borrower-language. But in Japan there has never been such bilingualism. Amid the powerful influence of Chinese culture on Japanese, contacts between Chinese and Japanese people (both in Japan and in China) have never been widespread, and during some periods were even banned. This in no way prevented the penetration of many kango into the Japanese language. These days, personal contacts between Japanese and Americans are certainly more considerable, but the general tendency remains. (Loveday 1996: 212-213).

So the process of the borrowing of gairaigo in present-day Japan is very similar to the process of the borrowing of kango in the past. In the words of one author, we are dealing not so much with borrowings, but with the absorption by the Japanese language of the whole English vocabulary. (Passin 1980: 55-56); the Japanese language is soaking up the whole vocabulary of the English language in the same way as it had once soaked up the whole vocabulary of the Chinese language. (Passin 1980: 63). In reality, of course, not every English word becomes a gairaigo, but potentially it has a chance to appear in Japanese, with proper adaptation, at least in occasional usage or as a component of a compound word. But this is also what happened with the Chinese (on) reading of Chinese characters.

But a question arises: How can one combine such potential ability to borrow with the above-mentioned poor knowledge of English among the Japanese? One should keep in mind that very many Japanese have a vague or no understanding of a significant share of gairaigo they come across, particularly in advertising, women's and youth magazines. We have already noted some facts of that nature. (Alpatov 1988: 92-93). Along with this, it turns out that the Japanese, especially younger people, are not even particularly interested in the precise meaning of this or that word. What is important above all is the "image," a sense of membership in the elite, which is fixed in writing by katakana or Latin script. This is even more so for English-language advertising, which we have discussed above. But in the past the same could be said (and in some respects could still be said) about kango, associated with Chinese characters: their "image" was somewhat different, but also an elite one. There is another similarity between kango and gairaigo. As is well known, a large share of Japan's kango were not borrowed in one piece from China, but invented in Japan itself from borrowed roots. But the same thing (although the rate is as yet different) can be seen with gairaigo. Many of them were formed in Japan from borrowed "construction material," although what is borrowed is usually not roots but whole words, which can however serve in Japanese as roots, too. Many instances have already become text-book examples, such as sarari:man 'office worker', from "salary" and "man." The non-existent English word "salaryman" at least does not contradict the rules of English grammar. But some constructions have been recorded (often, written in Latin script) that in the view of English speakers are impossible in their language: a newspaper section that prints answers to readers' questions is called "you-me box" (Loveday 1996: 153); a hotel chain that does not require identification papers has been dubbed "no face system" (Honna 1995: 48). And here is an example we observed in 2001. Due to highway congestion, signs have been put up asking people to refrain from driving their personal cars on given days; such days have been called no:-maika:-de:, literally "no my car day." It is easy to see that in these cases gairaigo is being treated according to the same rules that had once formed for kango, with no regard for the rules of English syntax. One article cites the opinion of one Japanese: "It doesn't matter that the Americans don't know the meaning of some gairaigo. It's important that we know it." (Stanlaw 1992: 75).

The two waves of mass borrowings in Japanese undoubtedly reflect an inherent feature of the Japanese culture. As one Western researcher notes, "the Japanese genius" is not in inventiveness but in the adaptation of some or other cultural elements first from Korea, then from China, then from Europe and the United States; unlike in many other countries this process largely took place not under outside pressure, but according to own will; as a result, borrowed elements took root and lived their own life, often changing beyond recognition compared to the original. (Tobin 1992: 3-4). Let us also recall the words of Suzuki Takao about the selectiveness of borrowing. The adaptation of new cultural elements in Japan has never meant the rejection of traditional cultural foundations, the new has not displaced the old, but was laid over it. This happened in many spheres of culture, including in language. It is not accidental that the incredible number of gairaigo in some styles does not offend the majority of the Japanese and does not seem incompatible with their national pride (although the opposite view also exists). But a different reaction is prompted by too much fluency in a foreign language. A one of the authors of "Multilingual Japan" writes, Japanese who have long lived abroad, and in particular their children, may be regarded as no longer quite Japanese, even as presenting a danger to society; upon returning to Japan such children go special schools where the main goal is to make them Japanese, while their knowledge of foreign languages is regarded as worthless. (Yashiro 1995: 150-151).

One can agree with a conclusion by L. Loveday: although the level of contacts between the Japanese and English languages may be the highest possible for a monolingual society, the process of the introduction of gairaigo into Japanese is more indicative of the opening up by society to separate elements of Western culture than of deep-seated Westernization. But the processes of globalization, under which the expansion of Western standards in all spheres, including culture and language, is taking on an exceptionally aggressive nature, may end up changing the situation even in Japan.

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