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日本語英語の海を航海する
つづりが違うもの、l(エル)とr(アール)の発音を混同したものなど、日本語の中にはさまざまな英語が、間違った形で取り込まれている。
だが筆者のリチャードさんは、これを母国語の堕落とは思わない。
すべての言葉は互いに影響しつつ発展するものだと考えているからだ。
Navigating Japlish
Many different types of strange English can be found in Japan, starting with simple instances of misspelled words. These range from the usual problems with "l" and "r," where "flea" market becomes "free" market, even though the objects there are for sale, not given away. There are also words that are spelt correctly but used wrongly, such as nearly every shop sign in Japan that reads "Close," meaning "near," rather than "Closed" meaning "not open."
However, as these become conventions in themselves, everyone understands what they are intended to mean, even us foreigners.
It is not only small companies that propagate these mistakes, even big companies who could easily pay for a native checker are guilty, for example, Hitachi with its "Inspire the Next" slogan. Inspire the next what, exactly? Clearly nobody at Hitachi had heard that adjectives always need a noun!
So, am I annoyed by this corruption of my native language? Not really. All languages by necessity develop and interact with other languages and on many occasions the results can be quite wonderful, such as an advertisment geared toward young girls that uses the word "cuteen." It's a word that may sound, to its target audience, appealing in itself, even without noticing it is made up of the words "cute" and "teen."
Anyway, I have long given up thinking of these words as English: after all, they are not aimed at me and my foreign friends — they are for the benefit of Japanese people. With this in mind, observing some of the ways English functions within the Japanese language becomes a fascinating exercise.
English seems to be used, much like katakana, for its visual impact, standing out in a sea of Japanese characters like a huge exclamation mark. It also seems to give an "exotic" air of Westernness, perhaps even modernity or sophistication to the Japanese eye. This perhaps explains the "Elegance Sand" I picked up in a convenience store, (sorry, "conbini") — it's elegance derived from being cut into thin fingers of sandwich easy to eat with a proper sense of decorum.
Still, the logic behind the use of English in Japan sometimes remains impenetrable to me.
I ordered an espresso in a cafe a few weeks ago. On the menu, an "s" clearly signified a single, but a double was written as "w." I started to run through in my head the words for "double" in European languages, hoping to find one beginning with "w." It is strange as a native speaker of English to be told by a Japanese waitress that the "double" I wanted to drink is signified not by a logical "d" but by the double in "double-u."
- Navigating
- 〜の中をうまく進んでいく
- Japlish
- 日本語英語
- instances
- 例
- range from 〜
- 〜をはじめとする
- flea
- ノミ(flea marketで「のみの市」)
- objects
- 物
- conventions
- 慣例
- in themselves
- それ自体
- propagate
- 〜を広める
- are guilty
- 罪がある
- "Inspire the Next"
- Inspireは「鼓舞する、意識を高揚させる」。Nextの後に続く言葉(「時代」、「製品」など)を自由に思い浮かべてもらうという発想の、日立製作所のコーポレートステートメント
- am I annoyed by 〜
- 私は〜にいらだっているだろうか
- corruption
- 崩れること
- interact with 〜
- 〜と相互に作用する
- have long given up 〜
- 〜をずっと前にあきらめてしまった
- for the benefit of 〜
- 〜のために
- functions
- 機能する
- fascinating exercise
- 心を奪われるような面白い作業
- visual impact
- 見た目の効果
- standing out
- 目立つこと
- exclamation mark
- 感嘆符
- exotic
- 異国的な
- air of Westernness
- 欧米っぽい雰囲気
- modernity
- 現代性
- sophistication
- 洗練されていること
- derived from 〜
- 〜に由来した
- thin fingers of 〜
- 一口サイズの〜
- sense of decorum
- 品のよさ
- impenetrable
- 難解な
- signified
- 〜を表していた
- run through
- いろいろ思い巡らす
- double-u
- アルファベットのw(uを2つ並べたという文字の作りに由来する。だが、英語ではwは「ダブル」の略としては使われない)