english words used in japanese [Archive] - Japan Forum

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Sinspawne
Jul 19, 2004, 21:10
Many english words used in japanese end with the letter o.

does that go for all adopted words?

ex: Fight - Fighto.
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also any advise about independant study would be greatly apreciated :wave:

PaulTB
Jul 19, 2004, 21:18
Many english words used in japanese end with the letter o.

Yup yup.
does that go for all adopted words?
Er, do you mean
a) Do all adopted English words end in Japanese with 'o' ?
or
b) Do all words adopted into Japanese (English or not) end with 'o' ?

The answer is 'no' to both.
バンダナ bandana
... but I can't think of any good non-English examples right now. :relief:

Sinspawne
Jul 19, 2004, 21:36
It's just that all english words i've heard end with an o
like my example earlier. (only word i can think of at the moment)

so any explanation would be fine

PaulTB
Jul 19, 2004, 21:50
It's just that all english words i've heard end with an o
like my example earlier. (only word i can think of at the moment)
Not all do. バンダナ for example ends in an 'a', and probably came via English.

so any explanation would be fine
Well it's quite simple.

In Japanese a word can end with an 'n' ん
or a word can end with one of 'a' 'i' 'u' 'e' 'o' sounds.*

Therefore any English word ending in a consonant other than n ん has to be treated specially.

For example Fred ends in a 'd'. But as Japanese can't end with 'd' it turns it into a 'do'. fureddo フレッド. Another thing that often happens is the ッ, that effectively 'doubles' the next consonant sound, is often added before the end. e.g. fureddo not furedo. This is because it emphasises the sound of the consonant in the final syllable (mora in Japanese) which makes it sound slightly more like the original.

* But it could be かきくけこ (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko) and so on for all the other Japanese sounds.

Sinspawne
Jul 19, 2004, 22:15
:cool: Thank you

I only understood some of it, but i believe my question was answered.
im only a newbie so i can't read anything written in actual japanese letters :(

PaulTB
Jul 19, 2004, 22:24
:cool: Thank you

I only understood some of it, but i believe my question was answered.
im only a newbie so i can't read anything written in actual japanese letters :(

See here (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/jwriting.html)
and if you can't see the Japanese characters also see here (http://www.declan-software.com/japanese_ime/).

Sinspawne
Jul 19, 2004, 22:32
I'm not the brightest candle in the room...

PaulTB
Jul 19, 2004, 22:39
I'm not the brightest candle in the room...
Nobody expects you to learn Japanese overnight.

But you should be able to pick up the kana in a fortnight or two if you work at it.

Sinspawne
Jul 19, 2004, 22:52
really!? A forth night eh?

I havent really given it my all in my studies. lack of time and resources i guess..
But as soon as i get my things together, I'll get my thumb out of my ass and do my absolute best!
I knew it would be hard when i started, but "giving up" is certainly not part of my vocabulary.

I really look up to you guys, helping others like this. you have my eternal gratitude :bow:

PaulTB
Jul 19, 2004, 23:13
really!? A forthnight eh?
Yeah, well that doesn't include the KANJI ... you don't want to know how long that takes :D

I knew it would be hard when i started, but "giving up" is certainly not part of my vocabulary.
Good luck!

KickAss_Danieru
Jul 22, 2004, 05:26
sux, im too busy with my studies to learn the kana in a few weeks, has taken me a month+ to learn hiragana, just because my animation corse is so hard out :/..

Sessha
Aug 4, 2004, 06:16
actually you'll only find o at the end when the foreign word ends with t or d. because in other cases they use the "u"-line as it is quiet when at the end. and the u line for t is tsu which doesn't resemble the sound of t at all. e.g. "bed" would be betsu! exeption: shirt = shatsu :okashii: