Wasei-kango

 ( Japanese Vocabulary ) 

lead=yes are words in the Japanese language composed of Chinese language but invented in Japan rather than borrowed from China. Such terms are generally written using kanji and read according to the on'yomi pronunciations of the characters. While many words belong to the shared Sino-Japanese vocabulary (also known as kango), some kango do not exist in Chinese while others have a substantially different meaning from Chinese. Some kango have been borrowed back into Chinese.

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Meiji era During the Meiji Restoration, Japanese words were invented en masse to represent foreign concepts such as or . Towards the end of the 19th century, many of these terms were re-imported into Chinese. Some consider that because the form of the words entirely resembles that of native Chinese words in most cases, Chinese speakers often fail to recognize that they were actually coined in Japan.

(2026). 9780700713776, Curzon. ISBN 9780700713776

However, some scholars argue that many of those terms, which were considered as wasei-kango by some people, were in fact created by Chinese and Western scholars. During the 19th century, officials from Japan had been purchasing Sino-English dictionaries such as A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1822), An English and Chinese Vocabulary in Court Dialect (1844) and Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language (1872) from China in order to absorb Western civilization.陳力衛《語詞的漂移：近代以來中日之間的知識互動與共有》,〈學苑〉, 2007-05-29

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History

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Pre-Meiji period Since antiquity, the Japanese have supplemented their native vocabulary, known as yamato kotoba, by borrowing many words from Chinese. After integrating the Chinese words into their vocabulary, they began creating their own kango.

One source of wasei-kango is the reinterpretation of yamato kotoba via on'yomi readings of the characters as opposed to the original kun'yomi. For example, the archaic word for Japan, 日の本 (ひのもと Hinomoto), has become the modern 日本 (にほん Nihon or にっぽん Nippon). Another example is the word for daikon, 大根, which changed from おおね ōne to だいこん daikon. Sometimes, an inversion of the character order is necessary, as in the construction of 立腹 (りっぷく) rippuku from 腹が立つ (はらがたつ) hara ga tatsu for "anger". Terms have also been coined for concepts in Japanese culture such as geisha (芸者), ninja (忍者), or kaishaku (介錯).

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Meiji Restoration As Western influence began to take hold in Japan during the 19th-century Meiji Restoration, Japanese scholars discovered that they needed new words to translate the books imported from Europe. They also imported new terms coined by Chinese and Western scholars from Sino-English dictionaries from China. Many of these terms are still commonly being used by both countries nowadays.陳力衛《語詞的漂移：近代以來中日之間的知識互動與共有》,〈學苑〉, 2007-05-29

Sometimes, existing words were repurposed to translate these new concepts. For example, was a Classical Chinese Buddhist term which became the modern word for "world", and was taken from Qinding Qiansouyan Shi (欽定千叟宴詩]]), a Qing dynasty poetry compendium. Other words were completely new creations, such as and . The majority of wasei-kango were created during this period. Following the Meiji Restoration and the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, many of these terms found their way into the modern Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese languages, where they remain today.

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Examples

+ ! colspan="2"	Chinese ! colspan="2"	Japanese ! colspan="2"	Korean ! rowspan=2	Vietnamese ! rowspan=2	Meaning
中將, 中将	zhōngjiàng	中将	chūjō	중장	jungjang	italics=no	lieutenant general; vice admiral
革命	gémìng		kakumei	혁명	hyeongmyeong	italics=no	revolution
民主	mínzhǔ		minshu	민주	minju	italics=no	democracy
共和國, 共和国	gònghéguó	共和国	kyōwakoku	공화국	gonghwaguk	italics=no	republic
主義, 主义	zhǔyì		shugi	주의	juui	italics=no	ideology; -ism
世界	shìjiè		sekai	세계	segye	italics=no	world
國際, 国际	guójì	国際	kokusai	국제	gukje	italics=no	international
出超	chūchāo		shutchō	출초	chulcho	italics=no	trade surplus
銀行, 银行	yínháng		ginkō	은행	eunhaeng	italics=no	bank
電話, 电话	diànhuà		denwa	전화	jeonhwa	italics=no	telephone
廣告, 广告	guǎnggào	広告	kōkoku	광고	gwanggo	italics=no	advertisement
		病院	byōin	병원	byeong'won	italics=no	hospital
哲學, 哲学	zhéxué	哲学	tetsugaku	철학	cheolhak	italics=no	philosophy
物理	wùlǐ		butsuri	물리	mulli	italics=no	physics
工業, 工业	gōngyè		kōgyō	공업	gong'eop	italics=no	industry

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See also

• Classical compounds in English and other Indo-European languages
• Wasei-eigo

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Notes

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External links

• Robert Morrison "A Dictionary of the Chinese Language" (1822): 使徒, 審判, 法律, 醫學, 自然的, 新聞, 精神, 単位, 行為, 言語
• Samuel Wells Williams "An English and Chinese Vocabulary in Court Dialect" (1844): 內閣, 選舉, 新聞紙, 文法, 領事
• Walter Henry Medhurst "English and Chinese Dictionary" (1847-1848): 知識, 幹事, 物質, 偶然, 教養, 天主, 小說, 本質
• Wilhelm Lobscheid "English and Chinese Dictionary, with Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation" (1866-1869): 蛋白質, 銀行, 幻想, 想像, 保險, 文學, 元帥, 原理, 右翼, 法則, 戀愛、讀者
• Justus Doolittle "Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language" (1872): 電報, 電池, 光線, 分子, 地質論, 物理, 動力, 光學, 國會, 函數, 微分學

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