Paper short abstract:

Kata-kana is one of the two syllabries forming part of the triad of logogram/phonogram used to write the Japanese language. Historically it performed one of two functions, however, in its contemporary form, it is often used as a way to white-wash negative words, externalising their ownership.

Paper long abstract:

Kata-kana, as a phonographic element is one of the two syllabries which form part of the triad[ The others being the Sino-Japanese characters, kan-ji (漢字, かんじ), and the second phonetic syllabary, kata-kana (平仮名, ひらがな).] of logogram/phonogram used to write the Japanese language. In its historical form, kata-kana generally performed one of two primary functions; either to capture, highlight, and render non-Japanese 'foreign loan-words[ 外来語 (gai-rai-go)]' entering the Japanese language or to write scientific terms, rather like Latin is used in the West. In its contemporary form, however its prolific use has tended to focus primarily on the first usage, in which guise kata-kana performs one of two further functions. Firstly to phonetically render a word from another language for which no Japanese exists, or secondly, to take a Japanese word for which kan-ji/kana exists, and to then translate or white-wash that word into the English language, after which, using kata-kana, it is reversed back into Japanese by phonetically rendering it to the closest Japanese equivalent e.g., trouble→トラブル→to ra bu ru. It should be noted that this white-washing often occurs with negative words or concepts thus the act externalises the ownership of the concept and alludes to the phenomenon being of 'foreign' origin, not domestic, even when this is not the case. Taking Baudrillard's notion of the simulacral (1981) and Faucault's (1980, 1982) and Faucault & Deluze's (1977) theories of power and control as points of departure, the author presents a treatise which examines and discusses what they called dissassociative kata-kana, as both a tool of externalisation and an agent of cultural subversion and power.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I discuss the influence of Japanese on the European languages. Recently, an increasing number of borrowings from Japanese has entered the European languages. I focus on Japanese loanwords in Romanian language. My analysis is based on words collected from dictionaries and newspapers.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I discuss the contribution of Japanese to the lexicon of European languages, with a focus on the case of the Romanian language.

As different types of dictionaries prove, beginning with 1900, borrowings from Japanese began to be identified in many European languages. For example, studies on Japanese loanwords in English identify 823 words of Japanese origin in the OED (Second Edition on CD-ROM version 3.0, 2002). They belong to semantic fields such as food and drink, arts and crafts, martial arts or religion.

In more recent years, the number of borrowings from Japanese has massively increased. Margaret Pine OTAKE (2010) shows that "the Japanese language has contributed the highest number of new vocabulary items to English for a non-European-based language in recent years".

After giving a short background of the recent history of Japanese borrowings in European languages, I discuss in detail the case of words of Japanese origin in Romanian. To this end, I use the first and second editions (1982 and 1997) of DCR (Dictionary of Recent Words) compiled by Florica Dimitrescu. The two editions reflect the new Romanian lexical dynamics during 1960-1996 and list recent borrowings from foreign languages, including Japanese (words such as bonsai, tatami, amakudari, ninja). According to the data in this dictionary, Japanese seems to have a greater impact on Romanian than Portuguese or Bulgarian.

Another work by the same author, Elemente japoneze recente în limba română (Recent Japanese elements in Romanian Language) discusses the situation of Japanese loanwords in the period 1980-2000, identifying more than 15 semantic fields to which they belong, such as sports, literature, customs, food, architecture, beliefs, Botany.

In order to capture the more recent situation of the words of Japanese origin in Romanian, I discuss a set of data that I have collected from contemporary newspapers, as well as from Romanian commercials for Japanese products, especially toys. The analysis focuses on the phonetic adaptation, morphological and syntactic integration and semantic properties. In addition, I utilize the results of a questionnaire targeting Romanian native speakers to test their level of understanding and usage of Japanese borrowings.