Ten Thousand Things

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

Intertwined Languages: Japanese-English, Spanglish, Denglish, and Language Hat

Posted March 27, 2006 by Jean Miyake Downey

Peter Backhaus' March 21,2006 piece on Japanese-English, "Odd use of foreign loan words a sign of the times" in the Japan Times, is filled with many recent specimens of Japanese-English.

As eye-catching as misspellings are unusual collocations that do not read well together. Some examples aimed at athletic types that were found recently in Tokyo are "Meet together and enjoy our golf-style" (which caused befuddlement in Okachimachi) or "Serious Fitness for every body" (Harajuku).

Many such expressions that appear strange to a foreign passerby are perfectly comprehensible when read as Japanese borrowings, as katakana words once introduced into Japanese quickly become independent of the original foreign word, developing a life of their own.

One example is "snack," as in the combination "Pub & Snack." The mismatch between the two words is only perceived as such by native English speakers. In Japanese, where sunakku is a special (indeed, very special) type of bar, the combination poses no problems.

This article reminded me that one of my favorite art forms is Japanese-English, which has been a sign of the times in Japan since at least a couple of decades – it's not new.

In 1980, Tanaka Yasuo's novel Somewhat Like Crystal (Nantonaku Kurisutoraru) was the first major break from established views of modern Japanese literature. The novel reflected the then frequent use of English in Japanese by using so much English that readers required hundreds of footnotes to understand the text. When the novel was first published, conservative literary critics criticized the expansive use of English as "nonsense." (Tanaka, one of Japan's most interesting political leaders, was elected governor of Nagano in 2000, reelected by landslide in 2002. In this terrific Japan Times 2005 interview, he says that his novel was about identity in Japan).

Alan Kastner, a "Canadian lad exiled in Japan," suggests that Japanese-English is not simply the result of fractured English but an intentional design element:. Kastner's original two-pronged analysis also leaves room for the possibility of bad translations, as well:

A great deal of ad copy in Japan appears bizarre to the native English speaker. But I suggest that it is not fractured English, or "Japlish" (Japanese English), as many folks refer to it. One way to interpret it would be simply as a design element used to add an exotic flair to the product. Either way, this "copy" is intended for a Japanese audience, so is better considered a bunch of individual words or phrases based on English vocabulary but not bound by the fetters of English grammar. If anything, I'd call it "English Japanese". The Japanese audience is content to enjoy the roman characters lined up on the page, even if the reader can't make sense of it. Still, they often do manage to understand the intended message.

Sound odd?

I don't think it should if you consider the penchant of Westerners to display and wear items adorned with Japanese or Chinese characters. The majority haven't a notion of what the characters say and I've seen some pretty silly stuff that would embarrass the wearers; if only they knew....

Sure, there is another type of strange English in this land as well; a fractured English usually stemming from bad translations by Japanese that is intended for foreigners. This most often appears in hotels, the transit system and other services accessed by foreign language speakers, and also as part of instruction manuals.

I agree with Kastner about the role of the creative drive in creating one of Japan's forms of contemporary global intertwined languages. People play with language because it's fun to do so. I have never been able to let go of any of my Japanese-English t-shirts, wearing them until they fell apart. Some I have saved, intending to frame them or turn them into pillows.

As well as not being new, Japanese-English is not an isolated or unique phenomenon. Millions of Latino-Americans are creating a vibrant new dialect, Spanglish, which has recently began fusing with African-American originated hip-hop, an internationally dynamic multicultural art form which is morphing into a vehicle for social conscience and positive social reform.

These mixed dialects often involve code-switching, when fluent speakers move from one language to another, which is common in bilingual families. The kinds of word and phrase borrowings noted by Backhaus are even more common.

Denglish, a combination of German (Deutsch) and English, is defined at WordSpy, a favorite site of mine "devoted to lexpionage, "the sleuthing of new words and phrases. These aren't "stunt words" or "sniglets," but new terms that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources."

A fascinating website on language and linguistics, Language Hat, has a discussion on Denglish.

Previous ........... Next
Back to Ten Thousand Things index page...