Today, Japanese is very popular all over the world. And the foreign students to Japan keeps increasing. Japanese is different by age and area is talked. Recently, I often see wearing the clothes which Japanese is written in the town. Since the Second World War Japanese boom is caused. And Japanese changes every day. They are originally used in a different meaning, and there are the words which they are shortened.
My theme is “Japanese language change”. I think that change and disorder of words are related to the Japanese language change. In other words they have a different grammatical pattern and usual pronunciation. Moreover it is changed by the overuse of Japanese English and slang words and the trendy words. Japanese English combine with English and it is made like English. Essentially, English doesn’t have expression these. The word is called “Japanese English” in Japan, but this word is Japanese English, too. The famous example is cooler. Cooler is Japanese, cooler is air conditioner in English. Other examples are side-brake, it means hand brake or parking brake in English. Slang words is the language that boys and girls use routinely and the language are mainly used only among young people. As for the slang words, there are very various kinds of words. For example, maji(まじ), bimyo(微妙), uzai(ウザい), and cho(超) and so on. Maji is short for majime(真面目) in Japanese, and it means serious in English. And this word is used as emphasis or expression of the credibility. It also comes from literature is called "gay-quarter novelette"(洒落本) of Edo era. It was used as a noun in Edo era, but it is used as an adverb now. Bimyo means subtle. This word is originally used in a different meaning among the young people. Even the meaning called "the thing which is splendid so as not to be able to express it by words" is originally used. And this comes from a Buddhism term. Uzai means uttoshii(うっとうし い) or mendou(面倒) in Japanese, and it means annoying in English. It is originally Tama dialect of Tokyo. Uzai is short for "uzattai". Cho means very. This word is to express the emphasis of the words. The kind of the constitution of slang words has ten.First is to shorten them, for example, “uzai”(ウザい) “syukatsu”(就活). Second is to invert them, for example, “derumo”(derumo) means model. Third is to mix. Fourth is add -er, and change words. Fifth use foreign language. Sixth changes noun into verb. Seventh uses an onomatopoeia or a mimetic word. Eighth shows the image. Ninth expand the conventional meaning. Finally is others, for example “~teki”(~的), “~kei”(~ 系).Trendy words are fashionable words and phrases. It is often true that the trendy words becomes stop being used and die off over time as the word at one time. For example, the dead language is "abekku"(アベック) and "sucyuwa-desu"(スチュワーデス). Abbeku means couple, scyuwa-desu means flight attendant. "Abekku" is couple","suchuwa－desu" is "kyakushitsu-jyomuin" are used in Japan now.But, there are words that become fixed as idiom phrase. A prize was made that is called “The new word/ trendy word grand prix” in 1984, and since then the commendation ceremony has been performed. And the example of the trendy words are guerrilla-gouu(ゲリラ豪雨), ara-four(アラフォー), ara-kan(アラ還), metabolic syndrome and konkatsu(婚活) and so on. Guerrila-gouu means downpour, ara-four means around 40 years, ara-kan means around 60th birthday and konkatsu means marriage activity in English. In this connection, "The new word/ trendy word grand prix of 2009" was announced on December 1st. The grand prix is "seiken-koutai"(政権交代) which Mr. Hatoyama of the Prime Minister got the prize. In addition, words such as "kodomo-tencho"(子供店長)and "shingata-infuruenza"(新型インフルエンザ)got the prize.
Japanese is different by a place and sex and age and so on. And trendy word changes with the time. So the words that our parents used are different from the words that we use. I think that Japanese changes more after this. Original Japanese may disappear in the future.
