Johannes Scherling

Japanizing English Johannes Scherling

This book deals with the topic of English loanwords in the Japanese language. Anglicisms are a phenomenon in almost every language, but hardly anywhere are they as dominant as in Japanese. Due to strong American influenceafter WW II, English loans have become a monopolizing force among Western loanwords in Japan and now make up about 90% of their stock, and almost 10% of the entire Japanese vocabulary. This monograph explores, among other things, their history, creation processes, functions and exemplary integration into the language, which assimilates them completely into the Japanese phonological and morphological system, and thus enormously facilitates their popular acceptance. It analyzes reactions from politics and society, which reveal some puristic tendencies but even more a pragmatismwhich defines Anglicisms by their functions in the language rather than their origin. The issue of comprehension is also discussedand followed-up by a survey showing that even difficult Anglicisms are well understood if put into a context that supports their meaning, and that they can indeed be an enrichment to a language, even in great numbers. These findings all make the Japanese case a model case for a smooth integration of loanwords and a pragmatic approach to this language phenomenon.