The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English
December 6, 2008
The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English [ja], the latest book by Japanese novelist and essayist Minae Mizumura [水村美苗] [en], roused debate among many Japanese bloggers recently over the fate of their national language. In this book, the writer, who had the opportunity to live and receive an education both in Japan and in the U.S., examines the role and future of the Japanese language. Mizumura contextualizes her discussion of this language, used for centuries by many literates and intellectuals to produce works of great literary value, in a modern age in which English is invading all fields of knowledge, to the point of becoming a universal written language used by everyone across the world to communicate.
Further Reading:
Japanese Language in the Age of English (Global Voices)
Ikeda on the Fall of Japanese (Global Voices)
Guess it’s different from the French who are into linguistic preservation…maybe the Japanese can get rid of katakana (won’t ever happen)?
Maybe the first step is to de-Engrish-ify the language.
I also don’t see much usefulness in katakana.
I think English language and Western culture in general will keep exerting a strong influence on Japan in the coming years.
This reminds me of the different dialects in China. Schools push for mandrin, so kids, while all understanding their dialects, doesn’t have much of a chance to speak it, a large number even refuse to speak it. Many people are talking about preserving the language, but I think it’s all going to die out within the next 5 generations and all dialects will be gone. I personally still understand my dialect, but I’ve been away from China for so long that I can only pronounce some basic words now. Still fluent in Mandrin though.
Rule Britannia
Choux,
Yes, China has many dialects, and it is not easy to keep the language in good shape once you move out of the country. It is unlikely that all the dialects will die in five years though.
- – -
Sakura,
haha That one?
(see it till the end for Macross Frontier and Gundam stuff)
I don’t know how I missed this article! Funny stuff. I don’t see Japanese disappearing anytime soon, but I can see English becoming a second official language. Starting next year, there is an education mandate that all elementary school 5th and 6th grade students must study English at least once per week. Personally, I see it as a good thing – as there needs to be a worldwide standard as far as language goes. That being said, I would prefer the world’s linguists come together and create an entirely new language to be implemented as the world’s standard “second language” as using English as the world’s standard seems a bit imposing and unfair. Perhaps that is something I can research in the future…
Katakana is useful because Japanese doesn’t have things like ALL CAPS. It isn’t just for foreign words, but also to stress Japanese words.
One person tried to do create such a language with Esperanto.
Oh, katakana is used to stress words?! Thank you for mentioning it
However, I don’t like all caps, and other methods such as italics can be used to stress words.
>other methods such as italics can be used to stress words.
Funny you said that…because, as “Okami-sensei” said katakana isn’t just for foreign words…but I was gonna say—it’s also used like italics are used in English.
For example: The car company Toyota writes their name as 「トヨタ」 because 「とよた」 doesn’t look like a company name.
And 「ゴミ」 (gomi) is a Japanese word (for garbage) but it’s seldom written as 「ごみ」.
Why would you think Japan would (or should) eliminate カタカナ (Katakana)?
It makes it easier to pronounce difficult foreign words (for example: middle Eastern or German, etc) and is an important part of the Japanese writing system.
Heh, 「とよた」 does not look like a company name, but 「トヨタ」 does? That’s an interesting perspective… I wonder what makes you think so?
Also I don’t see why Katakana would make pronunciation of the difficult foreign words easier.
Probably, it is too late to change anything now because Katakana is a part of the current system that people are so accustomed to. I just think it is a redundant part of the writing system.
>Heh, 「とよた」 does not look like a company name, but 「トヨタ」 does? That’s an interesting perspective… I wonder what makes you think so?
I’m not the only one who thinks that. It’s the reason katakana is used in their name.
It stands out when written in katakana, so it’s easier to see that it’s a name. Of course, they coul use kanji (豊田)…like Hitachi does (they’re 「日立」).
>Also I don’t see why Katakana would make pronunciation of the difficult foreign words easier.
A quick example: Americans mispronounce “petite”. It’s a French word…pronounced 「プチ」.
“Paris” is another French word mispronounced…it’s 「パリ」.
>I just think it is a redundant part of the writing system.
To me, that’s like saying lower-case alphabet letters are redundant.
Katakana was developed as a shorthand for man’yōgana characters. Developing a replica of hiragana just for emphasis purposes is not necessary. Other logographic languages do just fine without such systems (dots are used below or above characters or the characters are slanted like in italics).
Transliteration will always have some problems. The examples you gave demonstrated the cases where written English version of the word does not correspond to the pronunciation. I am sure there are cases where the Japanese transliteration does not match proper pronunciation.
Your capitalization analogy does not map well. Majuscules are useful for sentence separation, but most writing systems don’t distinguish between upper and lower cases, including the Japanese writing system: you don’t write the beginning of the sentences with katakana. Of course, you can argue that writing in capitals is useful for emphasis, but readability of such text is very poor. For example, British road signs no longer use all capital letters.
Anyway, Happy New Year
Thanks. ハッピー・ニュー・イアー (Happy New Year) to you, too.