Words in Japanese that sound like English

[Kintamayama]

I'm not talking of katagana, but legit kanji Japanese words. And not the "Baruto' type shikona either..

"Joukigen" 上機嫌 is good humor in Japanese-isn't that like "Joke again"? And "houfu"- 抱負, which means hope, aspiration. The coolest is 倶楽部- Kurabu, which means club..

Any more?

[Hashira]

The coolest is 倶楽部- Kurabu, which means club..

I'm pretty sure that this is just ate-ji, they chose kanji to fit the english word, way back when. not 100% sure, though...

[Doitsuyama]

瓶 (bin) means bottle, kettle, jar or... bin.

[Sasanishiki]

The coolest is 倶楽部- Kurabu, which means club..

I'm pretty sure that this is just ate-ji, they chose kanji to fit the english word, way back when. not 100% sure, though...

You are absolutely correct here - kanji was chosen to fit the Japanized sound of the English word. Another is 珈琲 (koohii) for coffee. A few of these words came out in the early Meiji period (perhaps late Tokugawa) when a lot of foreign terms were coming into Japan but they weren't written in katakana.

[Kintamayama]

You are absolutely correct here - kanji was chosen to fit the Japanized sound of the English word. Another is 珈琲 (koohii) for coffee.

It actually means "ornamental string of many pearls" which has nothing to do with coffee, while kurabu means "both comfort part", which is, after all, what a club is, and jokigen means "high-class disagreeable opportunity', which is what humor is all about. Houfu- "Hold in your arms the responsibility", which of course, is another way of saying hope.

I houfu I have proven my point beyond a shadow of a smile.

Edited February 4, 2008 by Kintamayama

[ilovesumo]

...the language is hard to learn.

[Oimeru]

売買 sounds like bye bye, sort of.

The other reading of 買 (kau) is also certainly easy to learn, for a German. I've finally started to learn Japanese. I bet in a few years I can even string together simple sentences (In a state of confusion...)

[Kintamayama]

売買 sounds like bye bye, sort of.

It's actually buy buy, and the word means trade in Japanese, so yes, excellent one!!

[ilovesumo]

設定(する) settei (for setting, set a mode)

[Yangnomazuma]

Don't know much about Japanese in this respect, but there is one word in Korean that sounds like an English explanation of the purpose of the object it names. The Korean word 호주머니 (hoe-joo-money) means "pocket". We all know that a pocket is, in fact, the most common place to hold your money.

[Kuroyama]

You are absolutely correct here - kanji was chosen to fit the Japanized sound of the English word. Another is 珈琲 (koohii) for coffee.

It actually means "ornamental string of many pearls" which has nothing to do with coffee, while kurabu means "both comfort part", which is, after all, what a club is, and jokigen means "high-class disagreeable opportunity', which is what humor is all about. Houfu- "Hold in your arms the responsibility", which of course, is another way of saying hope.

I houfu I have proven my point beyond a shadow of a smile.

I'm not sure what your point is. It may be nothing more than that the kanji were carefully chosen where possible so that the meaning was the same as the word being represented. Obviously this was not always possible, as in the work for coffee.

How "hold in your arms the responsibility" is supposed to mean "hope" I have no idea. Hoping a situation works out is often something you do when you've abandoned responsibility for it. "Both comfort part" is vague approximation, at best. If someone were to come up to me and say, "Hey, let's go down to the both comfort part tonight," I'd actually guess he was talking about a brothel.

[Kaikitsune Makoto]

English is Hebrew but take this:

matto=carpet. mat

matto=carpet, mat

Languages: Finnish and Japanese

Be very well indeed. I take all that back. I have committed a sin. Some nurses here say "I go to commit a sin" when they go for a smoke outside during ER night shift. BUt my sin here is that only now I realised Japanese matto is just a boring derivative of "mat" and what is even bigger sin is that I always thought that Finnish matto is unique word in the universe like vanttuut but that too is just close to ENglish mat and other languages' mat*-words. This saddens me, this really does. Shattering of an illusion is never good. This was my Santa Claus shattering. Shutter! Shut the matto up! Aaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!

[Kintamayama]

You are absolutely correct here - kanji was chosen to fit the Japanized sound of the English word. Another is 珈琲 (koohii) for coffee.

It actually means "ornamental string of many pearls" which has nothing to do with coffee, while kurabu means "both comfort part", which is, after all, what a club is, and jokigen means "high-class disagreeable opportunity', which is what humor is all about. Houfu- "Hold in your arms the responsibility", which of course, is another way of saying hope.

I houfu I have proven my point beyond a shadow of a smile.

I'm not sure what your point is.

Exactly.

[Harry]

You are absolutely correct here - kanji was chosen to fit the Japanized sound of the English word. Another is 珈琲 (koohii) for coffee.

It actually means "ornamental string of many pearls" which has nothing to do with coffee, while kurabu means "both comfort part", which is, after all, what a club is, and jokigen means "high-class disagreeable opportunity', which is what humor is all about. Houfu- "Hold in your arms the responsibility", which of course, is another way of saying hope.

I houfu I have proven my point beyond a shadow of a smile.

I'm not sure what your point is.

Exactly.

Zen is no zen.

[Kuroyama]

English is Hebrew but take this:

matto=carpet. mat

matto=carpet, mat

Languages: Finnish and Japanese

Be very well indeed. I take all that back. I have committed a sin. Some nurses here say "I go to commit a sin" when they go for a smoke outside during ER night shift. BUt my sin here is that only now I realised Japanese matto is just a boring derivative of "mat" and what is even bigger sin is that I always thought that Finnish matto is unique word in the universe like vanttuut but that too is just close to ENglish mat and other languages' mat*-words. This saddens me, this really does. Shattering of an illusion is never good. This was my Santa Claus shattering. Shutter! Shut the matto up! Aaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!

Maybe. Other times there are false cognates that mean the same thing but are coincidentally similar. The classic example is Latin habere and German habe. They look alike and mean the same thing ("have"), but are completely unrelated. The Latin word with the same root as the German word is capere, meaning "seize".

Very commonly similar words with similar meanings are real cognates, but you need a dictionary with good etymological information to be able to tell for sure. So don't be too disappointed until you look it up!

[Kuroyama]

You are absolutely correct here - kanji was chosen to fit the Japanized sound of the English word. Another is 珈琲 (koohii) for coffee.

It actually means "ornamental string of many pearls" which has nothing to do with coffee, while kurabu means "both comfort part", which is, after all, what a club is, and jokigen means "high-class disagreeable opportunity', which is what humor is all about. Houfu- "Hold in your arms the responsibility", which of course, is another way of saying hope.

I houfu I have proven my point beyond a shadow of a smile.

I'm not sure what your point is.

Exactly.

Zen is no zen.

Mu.

[Kintamayama]

Found one! 乱暴 violent - Ranbo (sometimes the n gets switched with an m in some transliterations like shimpan and shimbun..)! So Rambo means violent person. Nice.

[Harry]

Before b and p it 'n' always changed to 'm'. From "Teach Yourself Japanese" by Dunn and Yanada (1958, p3):

Before s, z, t, d, n, it (n) is pronounced as in English, e.g. sansei, "consent"; sanzen, "three thousand"; nanten, "how many marks"; sando, "three times"; nan no "of what". Before b, p, m, its sound is m, e.g. sanbun "three parts"; sanpun "three minutes"; nanmai "how many sheets (of paper)". Before k, g, it is like the "ng" of "singer", e.g., sankagetu, "for three months"; sangatu "March". In all other positions, i.e., before a vowel, before y, r, w, and in a final position, it has an in-determinite nasal sound; thus in arimasen, "is not", one makes as if to pronounce it "arimaseng" but stops just before the completion of the sound.

In modern times, however, the "ng" sound is not used properly by young people, or so I am told by most middle aged Japanese people with whom I correspond.

Edited October 13, 2008 by Harry

[Otokonoyama]

I like this guy's ideas on "not used properly"...

http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/4660

[Jejima]

karaoke, origami, karate, sumo..... (Lifting weights...)

[Manekineko]

Not English, but two Croatian-Japanese coincidences that amused me to no end when I first started learning (I was younger and easier amused back then).

Onna (woman) in Japanese -> ona (she) in Croatian

Kazan (volcano) in Japanese -> kazan (cauldron) in Croatian (well, Turkish origin probably)

[Kintamayama]

Not English, but two Croatian-Japanese coincidences that amused me to no end when I first started learning (I was younger and easier amused back then).

Onna (woman) in Japanese -> ona (she) in Croatian

Kazan (volcano) in Japanese -> kazan (cauldron) in Croatian (well, Turkish origin probably)

If we're going THAT route (well, kinda..):

Sakana- fish in Japanese, danger in Hebrew

Ima- now in Japanese, mommy in Hebrew

[Hashira]

similar to one mentioned above

完売 (kanbai)

means all sold, in other words, you can't buy!

[kaiguma]

karaoke, origami, karate, sumo..... (Scratching chin...)

Well to be completely anal and trifling..... (Whistling...)

Karate sounds not so much like Kuh-rotty, nor does karaoke sound remotely like Carry-okie. :-|

[Sokkenaiyama]

Well, I have one example in Romanian. Baba means old woman in both languages.