Compiling a list of Native Words

4 comments

1. Great idea, I don’t like how especially in technology, nearly all the specialized lingo is just 外来語. Even in smartphones, the flashlight is called ライト and battery is バッテリー instead of 電池(I guess they’re both loanwords).

   Also, I think you might have messed up the れんだく when typing 宴, its kun’yomi reading should be うたげ.

2. i remember watching a man-on-the-street type video where they tasked japanese people with coming up with non-外来語 words for katakana words. its fun to think about how you could describe stuff in Japanese without katakana, like saying something like 自動階段 vs. エスカレーター. obviously not the same exact thing you’re describing but sometimes i try to come up with these kind of fake words myself as a lil though experiment

3. I am going to add some more examples:
   • ぺット ：愛玩動物 「あいがんどうぶつ」
   • インタネット：電網 「でんもう」
   • カメラ ：寫眞機/写真機 「しゃしんき」
   • ベッド ：寢臺/寝台 「しんだい」・寢床/寝床「ねどこ」

   I have more that I’ll share in the future.

4. It’s an interesting concept to examine.

   I remember some game show for one segment included the rule that contestants were penalized if they used a loan word for something where a native word existed.

   I also wonder about how many things that are imported do have some kanji writing but the loan word is used anyway. Lots of sports. There’s the obvious 野球. It amuses me how ハイキュー!! is titled too.