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Some interesting lexical phenomena took place in the mid-19th century. Pronunciation of certain words from the pronunciations used in China's Tang Dynasty (618-907) with which these words had been associated changed for some unknown reason to the those imported into Japan from the state of Wu, an area near Shanghai that flourished during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period (ca.317 - ca.589). Examples of such changes are syōzyō 'clean' 清浄 to seizyō, syozyaku 'books' 書 to shoseki, rutsū 'circulation' 流通 to ryūtsū. In other cases, the elements in compounds were transposed but retaining the same meaning, as in kōtei 'resistance' 抗抵 to teikō 抵抗, renjuku 'skill' 練熟 to jukuren 熟練, and tankan 'simplicity' 単簡 to kantan 簡単.. No one has been successful in explaining why this happened. Some underwent change in meaning, as in gaijin 'other people' 外人 to 'foreigner', geijutsu 'technique' 芸術 to 'fine arts', and jiko 'reason' 事故 to 'accident', all no doubt reflecting the quickly changing cultural landscape.
During the interwar years, a policy was enacted to prohibit using English words--words of the enemy. To accommodate this language policy, new translated equivalents were replaced Japanese copies--such as yakyū (for beesubōru 'baseball'; even today the word yakyū is the most common word referring to this sport), yoshi (lit. 'good' meaning strike), dame (lit. 'no good' meaning ball).
Post-war period
After World War II, the most dominant source language in lexical borrowing became (American) English. Many thousands of words were borrowed into Japanese beginning with gamu 'chewing gum' and chokoreeto 'chocolate' American GIs brought to Japan. A list of borrowing from English and from other western nations since 1945 will easily fill a book; in fact the number of borrowed words is enormous, so much so that one can see many choices for a dictionary of borrowed words in any bookstore today.
Do the Japanese Understand Borrowed Words?
Today, according to one statistic, about 10% of words in the Japanese vocabulary is foreign (excluding Chinese). Does everyone understand all these foreign words? The answer is, surprising, "no." According to a recent survey of the National Institute for the Japanese Language, a quasi-governmental research organization, there are many foreign words encountered daily in Japan that are not understood readily (such as infōmudo konsento 'informed consent (for medical care)', maruchimedia 'multimedia')). The organization is promoting another way of saying the same in Japanese (e.g., nattoku shinryō for infōmudo konsento.) Published materials in certain disciplines and interest areas certainly count on a good knowledge of field-specific vocabulary (some borrowed) on the part of the audience. The same can be said about other forms of media such as TV and radio programs. To particular groups, foreign borrowing makes sense, but outside of these groups, it fails to conjure up any meaning. Recent newspaper articles point out how some Japanese people feel that their own language has been taken over by English and become incomprehensible. Even if these words may not make much any sense to them, many use them.
Why? Language is by nature socially defined. Using borrowed words have their functions in society. Let us name three. First, these words are often impart the image of erudition and knowledge. When someone uses a lot of words from English and French that not many people can understand one can sound rather impressive. Also the image one projects is, beyond being incomprehensible, being hip and abreast with the times. Being with the times is always fashionable.
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