Japanese has a long history of borrowing from foreign languages. It has been doing so since the late fourth century AD. Some ancient
gairaigo words are still being used nowadays, but there are also many kinds of
gairaigo words that were borrowed more recently. Most, but not all, modern
gairaigo are derived from
English, particularly in the post-World War II era (after 1945). Words are taken from English for concepts that do not exist in Japanese, but also for other reasons, such as a preference for English terms or fashionability – many
gairaigo have Japanese near-synonyms. In the past, more
gairaigo came from other languages besides English. The first period of borrowing occurred during the late fourth century AD, when a massive number of Chinese characters were adopted. This period could be considered one of the most significant in the history of
gairaigo, because it was the first moment when the written communication systems using
kanji were formed. The first non-Asian countries to have extensive contact with Japan were
Portugal and the
Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Japanese has several loanwords from
Portuguese and
Dutch, many of which are still used. The interaction between Japan and Portugal lasted from the Late Middle Ages until the early Edo era (1549–1638). An example of the loanwords from Portuguese is
rasha, meaning a thick wool cloth that was indispensable during the period, but not used often nowadays. In the Edo era (1603–1853), words from the Dutch language, such as
glas,
gas, and
alcohol, started to have an impact in the Japanese language. Also, during the Edo era, many medical words like
Gaze (meaning
gauze) and
neuroses came from German, and many artistic words such as
rouge and
dessin came from French. Most of the
gairaigo since the nineteenth century came from English. In the
Meiji era (late 19th to early 20th century), Japan also had extensive contact with
Germany, and gained many loanwords from
German, particularly for Western medicine, which the Japanese learned from the Germans. Notable examples include (often abbreviated to ) from German ("work"), and from German
Energie. They also gained several loanwords from
French at this time. In modern times, there are some borrowings from Modern Chinese and Modern Korean, particularly for food names, and these continue as new foods become popular in Japan; standard examples include
ūron (烏龍 ウーロン "
oolong tea") and
kimuchi (キムチ "
kimchi"), respectively, while more specialized examples include
hoikōrō (
回鍋肉 ホイコーロー "
twice cooked pork") from Chinese, and
bibinba (
ビビンバ "
bibimbap") from Korean. Chinese words are often represented with Chinese characters, but with
katakana gloss to indicate the unusual pronunciation, while Korean words, which no longer regularly use Chinese characters (
hanja), are represented in
katakana. There is sometimes ambiguity in pronunciation of these borrowings, particularly voicing, such as vs. – compare English's
Daoism–Taoism romanization issue. Some Modern Chinese borrowings occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries, due both to trade and resident Chinese in
Nagasaki, and a more recent wave of Buddhist monks, the
Ōbaku school, whose words are derived from languages spoken in
Fujian. More recent Korean borrowings are influenced both by proximity, and to the substantial population of
Koreans in Japan since the early 20th century. In 1889, there were 85
gairaigo of Dutch origin and 72
gairaigo of English origin listed in a Japanese dictionary. From 1911 to 1924, 51% of
gairaigo listed in dictionaries were of English origin, and today, 80% to 90% of
gairaigo are of English origin. There have been some borrowings from
Sanskrit as well, most notably for religious terms. These words are generally transliterations which were unknowingly borrowed from Chinese.
Doublets In some cases,
doublets or etymologically related words from different languages may be borrowed and sometimes used synonymously or sometimes used distinctly. The most common basic example is versus earlier , where they are used distinctly. A similar example is versus earlier ; thus is not redundant but means a drinking vessel specifically made of glass (e.g. as opposed to plastic). A more technical example is (English
sorbitol) versus (German
Sorbit), used synonymously.
Wasei-kango In addition to borrowings, which adopted both meaning and pronunciation, Japanese also has an extensive set of new words that are crafted using existing Chinese morphemes to express a foreign term. These are known as
wasei-kango, "Japanese-made Chinese words". This process is similar to the creation of
classical compounds in European languages. Many were coined in the Meiji period, and these are very common in medical terminology. These are not considered
gairaigo, as the foreign word itself has not been borrowed, and sometimes a translation and a borrowing are both used. == Writing ==