French loanwords in Japanese!

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In this video I give some examples of French loanwords used in the Japanese language. Notice how they're all written in the katakana syllabary, the way most modern loanwords are.

Jean Antoine
 

  • @C_In_Outlaw3817 says:

    They also got a lot of words from English in that period, as well

  • @tedkz6155 says:

    I thought that pan came from Portuguese pão

  • @genevaconventionsviolator3994 says:

    Wasn’t the word for bread taken from Portuguese?

    • @Langfocus says:

      The source I referenced said it came from French, but I suppose it could have come from Portuguese pão.

    • @genevaconventionsviolator3994 says:

      Don’t agree, Paul’s content is normally thoroughly researched and he never intends to clickbait.

    • @uranusjr says:

      I’m quite sure the loan happened before Meiji. Historically バン was in text much before Meiji (different from the modern spelling of パン but it was common to mix dakuten and handakuten at the period). Given French influence did not become major until later, it’s less likely the word was borrowed from French. I believe Portuguese is the generally assumed source currently.

    • @isag.s.174 says:

      ​@@Langfocusit is from Portuguese!!!

    • @isag.s.174 says:

      ​@@genevaconventionsviolator3994sorry, but he’s wrong in this one

  • Anonymous says:

    My personal favourite is 「アルバイト」 (a-ru-ba-i-to), which means ‘part-time job’ and comes from the German _Arbeit_ (f).

    I like to believe some Japanese person took up what’s considered full-time employment in a German-speaking country, was bid a _’Schönen Feierabend!’_ by their boss at 17:00 and nearly died of laughter before realising they were being serious. 😅

  • @Nick-zl5xf says:

    Before the West became weeaboos, the Japanese became Oui-aboos

  • @Arjibi says:

    And the obsession with sweet by young Japanese today making more loanword like cafe au lait (カフェ・オ・レ) pudding (プリン) parfait (パフェ) mont blanc (モンブラン)

  • @2000galshiba says:

    Hi Paul. You mentioned the Japanese word “manto” comes from the French word “manteau”.

    In that particular case, I have also seen research suggesting that the word was borrowed from the Portuguese word “manto”.

    Of course, since both French and Portuguese are Romance languages and share many cognate words, it isn’t always easy to tell the source of the loan word.

    • @Langfocus says:

      The sources I’ve seen said it’s from French, but yeah it’s hard to tell just based on the word.

    • @espiritudelatino says:

      I would assume is Portuguese. There’s far more history of Japan interacting with the Portuguese and Spanish than the French.

    • @Demurralable says:

      Jubón, tempura, kasteria, manto, and others, I thought were from Portuguese

    • @MelkromisteinWeeb says:

      @@espiritudelatino During the Meji Period the Japanese modelled their Army after the French Army for a while before switching to the German model. And they imported several more matters of government from the French, which explains the many French loanwords in the first place.

      The Portuguese haven’t had contact with the Japanese for 250 years at that point.

    • @HOPEfullBoi01 says:

      ​@@espiritudelatino I don’t know. Manto is a word in Turkish as well and it’s certainly from French as Turkey was never in direct interaction or cultural influence with the Portuguese.

  • @MITCHIE_LAPIZ says:

    I’ve always thought “zubon” sounded a bit out of place to be a pure Japanese word. Didn’t know it came from French out of all places.

  • @bigsarge2085 says:

    Fascinating.

  • @faenethlorhalien says:

    The Meiji period saw lots of borrowing of European words from languages other than English, tbh. German was also a huge influence, especially in the field of medicine in Japan.

    • @Langfocus says:

      Yes, I filmed this along with another clip about German loanwords. I just haven’t had time to edit it yet.

  • @user-jn1pb1ep9d says:

    I’m Japanese and i didn’t know😂
    Thank you for explaining

  • @frzferdinand72 says:

    ピーマン (bell pepper) came from French piment as well.

  • @re1mat0 says:

    also I know アベック meaning a romantic couple from avec (with) and バカンス for holiday ( 🇺🇸: vacation) from vacanes which is also mean 休暇(きゅうか).

  • @battyboio says:

    I cant even escape french in my own language now i gotta deal with it in Japanese 😭

  • @ParadiseDB7 says:

    AHHHHH. That explains why Studio Pierrot (the studio behind Bleach and Naruto) is romanized like that but pronounced as Piero!

  • @donaldlee8249 says:

    My favorite loan word remains 帝王切開

    • @EgnachHelton says:

      Didn’t knew the C in C-section is Caesar…

    • @ArchangelTenshi says:

      that would be a calque rather than a loan word
      another calque is 恐竜 (ryoukyuu) meaning “dinosaur” but whose individual characters mean “scary dragon”. “dinosaur” comes from greek for “terrifying lizard” lmao

  • @BobTheHatKing says:

    Bread is パン “pan” but I heard it came from Portuguese pão and not French pain. Either way it was also later borrowed into Taiwanese with basically the same pronunciation: “pháng”

  • @Aniram789 says:

    Pierrot is a clown but he was designed without the featurism seen in some other clowns.

  • @emirin5rira says:

    OHHHH I always wondered where random words like zubon and manto came from lol, so many words are from English i didn’t even think 😂

  • @AntiquatedApe says:

    Like everywhere else they borrowed words. The word for bread is pan which is Spanish for bread. They call hot dogs hotto doggu which is English. They call convenience stores konbini another english one. Theyve got lots of fun words lol

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