Composition #3

いま　外国へ　います。　ニューヨークが　おもしろありませんでしたから　海外へいました。　もともと　大学で　おしえました。　でも、　掲載は　悪かったですから　いま　しごとかありません。　そして　人生は　あかるくありませんでした。　家族や友達となどうがいあせん。　どして　わたしは　ここにいますか。　ないなか　たべたいです、　あそびたいです。　海外へ　れきしを　おしえに　来ました。　生活は　たへんです。　しごとは　ありませんから　時間が　たくさんあります。このさき　なにをしますか。

Katakana Analysis Final

Well of the three katakana words I chose to post, the first I would like to mention is the adoption of the word skinship/スキンシプ/sukinshipu　in the Japanese lexicon.  The concept of スキンシプ, is a portmanteau of skin, indicating physical intimacy along with (as the Japanese have a tendency to do) a contracted form of friendship.  Hence we have the wonderful neologism of スキンシプ in colloquial usage.  As we can see, this is clearly not an example of an ordinary loanword, but rather a unique concept coined in the land of the rising sun.  Though the individual components of the word may have been of foreign origin, this appropriation, the indigenization is simply the trend in any language.  What makes this particularly interesting is the adoption of this concept in the modern Korean vocabulary as well, as 스킨십/Seukinshib.  As in the Japanese language, スキンシプ　was naturalized, it too filtered to the Korean lexicon with the same connotations and meaning.

As for my second katakana word, the word アルバイト/arubaito/part time job has its origins from the German word arbeit.  Did this concept not exist in Japan before?  Again, as with the former スキンシプ、it too has been adopted by the Korean language, though in the form of 아르바이트/areubaiteu, with a further contraction into 알바/alba.  The tendency to contract loanwords in Japanese, such as building into ビル is just as prevalent in the Korean language as well.  Though much has been made of the homogenization of languages around the globe from the influence of English (my dear god, Japanese is without a doubt one of the more flagrant ones) the influence of Japanese on its former colony can be observed through these linguistic constructs.  The indigenization of these words has been to such a degree that modern Japanese speakers may not be able to distinguish some of these constructs.

Now, what kind of words are adopted into Japanese?  If we look at its historical past, the adoption of kanji by the Japanese and the subsequent exporting of kanji compound words into China and Korea is what English is to Japanese.  The kanji for Telephone/전화(Jeonhwa)/電話(denwa/dianhua) may have been originally Chinese, but the particular arrangement was standardized by the Japanese.  Terminology for the modern sciences, international law, or for example, the concept of ethnicity, 民族(J:minzoku/K:minjok/C:minzu) was contrived by the Japanese as a result of the influences of the German concept of volk and in turn reborrowed by the Chinese.  I am sure that if one asked a random sample, most would not be able to identify the origins of these words.  With this in mind, the creation/adoption of katakana words is simply another manifestation of the borrowing of concepts.  Words such as sukinshipu have become Japanese, and arubaito, トラウマ/trauma are examples of the perpetual borrowing of concepts in languages, Japanese being no exception to the rule.

So, what can we say about katakana?  Though the ability to create new kanji and kanji compound words remains, perhaps we can attribute the prevalence of katakana loanwords to the essence of prestige of one language influencing the other.  Undoubtedly this may not be the case, but biru?  Why biru over tatemono, why is スパイス　コーナused？  According to one friendly poster, the intent of these words were to connote different nuances, such as a biru being a term for skyscrapers, tall buildings with tatemono being used in other contexts.

As for sources, if one simply looks at urbandictionary.com, the colloquial usages of the word "sukinshippu" can be found. In the case of my other references to minzoku/denwa, while a cursory search online could simply verify my claims, here is a link: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20081007a1.html.