Gairaigo (外来語) is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration (or "transvocalization") into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a modern Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese. A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken into by one language from another. ... Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ...

Most gairaigo are derived from English; others come from French, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish, among others. Gairaigo, while making Japanese easier to learn for foreign students in some cases, can also cause problems due to independent semantic progression. For example, sutōbu (ストーブ) from the English "stove" has multiple meanings in English. Americans often use the word to mean a cooking appliance, and are thus surprised when Japanese take it to mean a space heater (such as a wood-burning stove). The Japanese term for a cooking stove is another gairaigo term, renji (レンジ), from English "range"—a gas stove is a gasurenji (ガスレンジ). Additionally, Japanese combine words in ways that are uncommon in English. As an example, left over is a baseball term for a hit that goes over the left-fielder's head, rather than uneaten food saved for a later meal. This is a term that appears to be a loan but is actually wasei-eigo, literally, "English made in Japan." The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Semantic progression describes the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. ... Baseball is a team sport, in which a fist-sized ball is thrown by a defensive player called a pitcher and hit by an offensive player called a batter with a round, smooth stick called a bat. ... Wasei-eigo (和製英語 wasei eigo, lit. ...

In written Japanese, gairaigo are almost exclusively written in katakana, but not always. Some older loanwords can also be written in hiragana or even kanji, e.g. tabako (たばこ or 煙草) = tobacco. Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Katakana (片仮名, literally: partial kana) are a Japanese syllabary, one of four Japanese writing systems (the others are hiragana, kanji and rōmaji). ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Hiragana (平仮名 literally smooth kana) are a Japanese syllabary, one of four Japanese writing systems (the others are katakana, kanji and rōmaji). ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Kanji (漢字, literally characters from Han China; see also Han Chinese) are Chinese characters used in Japanese. ...

Some gairaigo are shortened forms of the original foreign language word. For example, depāto (デパート) = department store. Portmanteaus, such as wāpuro (ワープロ) for "word processor", are common. Karaoke, a combination of the Japanese word kara and the clipped form oke of the English loanword "orchestra" (J. ōkesutora オーケストラ), is a portmanteau that has entered the English language. Ordinarily, the Japanese take the first part of a foreign word, but from the English words "flannel" and "blanket" they took the second syllables, to form the gairaigo neru and ketto. A portmanteau (plural: portmanteaux or portmanteaus) is a word that is formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words. ... A Karaoke machine Karaoke (Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 kara, empty, and オーケストラ ōkesutora, orchestra) is a form of entertainment where an amateur singer accompanies recorded music. ...

Some gairaigo words have been reborrowed into their original source languages, particularly in the jargon of fans of Japanese entertainment. For example, anime (アニメ) is gairaigo derived from the word "animation", but has been reborrowed into English with the meaning of "animation from Japan". Similarly, puroresu (プロレス) derives from "professional wrestling", and has been adopted by English-speaking wrestling fans as a term for the style of pro wrestling performed in Japan. A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998) Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, sometimes referred to in the Western world by the portmanteau Japanimation. ... Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a... Puroresu is Japanese professional wrestling, as seen in FMW, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and All Japan Pro Wrestling. ... // Professional wrestling is a form of performance art where the participants engage in simulated sporting matches. ...

For an extensive list of terms, see the List of Gairaigo and Wasei-eigo terms. This is a list of gairaigo and wasei-eigo terms. ...

Gairaigo misconception

Coincidentally, the word arigatō (有り難う or ありがとう, Japanese for "thank you") sounds somewhat like the Portuguese word obrigado, which has the same meaning. Given the number of borrowings from Portuguese, it may seem reasonable to suppose that the Japanese imported that word--which is the explanation accepted and indeed published by many. However, arigatō is not a gairaigo; rather, it is a form of the native Japanese adjective arigatai (ありがたい), the use of which dates to several centuries before contact with the Portuguese. This makes the two terms false cognates. (Incidentally, obrigado is cognate to obligation, a loan from Old French.) An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ... A pair of false cognates consists of two words in different languages that appear to be or are sometimes considered cognates (words in different languages with a common root) when they are in fact not. ...

See also

• Engrish
• Transcribing English to Japanese