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'Sino-Japanese' refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the Chinese language or has been created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Some grammatical or sentence patterns can also be identified with Sino-Japanese. Sino-Japanese vocabulary is referred to in Japanese as ''kango'' (漢語), meaning 'Chinese words'. ''Kango'' is one of three broad categories into which the Japanese vocabulary is divided. The others are native Japanese vocabulary (大和言葉 ''yamato-kotoba'' or 和語 ''wago'') and borrowings from mainly Western languages (''gairaigo''). Approximately 60% of the words contained in a modern Japanese dictionary is estimated to consist of ''kango''^[1], and it forms about 18% of words used in speech, as measured by the National Institute for Japanese Language in its study of language use in NHK broadcasts from April to June, 1989.^[2]

Contents

Background

Sino-Japanese and On'yomi

Words 'Made in Japan'

Phonetic equivalencies between Mandarin and ''On'yomi''

Chart of correspondences

References

Background

Chinese vocabulary has exerted an enormous effect on the Japanese language. At the time of their first contact, the Japanese language had no writing system, while the Chinese had a written language and a great deal of academic information, providing new concepts along with Chinese words to express them. Chinese became the language of science, learning and religion. The earliest written language to be used in Japan was literary Chinese, which has come to be called ''kanbun'' in this context. The ''kanbun'' writing system essentially required every literate Japanese to be competent in written Chinese, although it is unlikely that many Japanese people were then fluent in spoken Chinese. Chinese pronunciation was approximated in words borrowed from Chinese into Japanese; this Sino-Japanese vocabulary is still an important component of the Japanese language.

Sino-Japanese and On'yomi

The term kango is usually identified with ''on'yomi'' (音読み, "sound reading"), a system of pronouncing Chinese characters in a way that at one stage approximated the original Chinese. On'yomi is also known as the 'Sino-Japanese reading', and is opposed to ''kun'yomi'' (訓読み, "reading by meaning") under which Chinese characters are assigned to, and read as, native Japanese vocabulary.
However, there are cases where the distinction between on'yomi and kun'yomi does not correspond to etymological origin. Chinese characters created in Japan, called , normally only have kun'yomi, but some kokuji have on'yomi. One such character is 働 (as in 働く ''hataraku'', "to work"), which was given the on'yomi ''dō'' when used in compounds with other characters, e.g. 労働 ''rōdō'' ("labor"). The character 腺 ("gland"), which has the on'yomi ''sen'' (e.g. 扁桃腺 ''hentōsen'' "tonsils") was intentionally created as a 'kango' and does not have a kun'yomi at all. Although not originating in Chinese, both of these are regarded as 'Sino-Japanese'.
By the same token, kun-yomi is not an absolute guarantee that a word is native Japanese. There are a few Japanese words that, although they appear to have originated in borrowings from Chinese, have such a long history in the Japanese language that they are regarded as native and are thus treated as kun'yomi, e.g., 馬 ''uma'' "horse" and 梅 ''ume''. These words are not regarded as belonging to the Sino-Japanese vocabulary.

Words 'Made in Japan'

While much Sino-Japanese vocabulary was borrowed from Chinese, a considerable amount was created by the Japanese themselves as they coined new words using Sino-Japanese forms. These are known as ''wasei kango'' (和製漢語 'Japanese-created ''kango').
The best-known example is the prolific numbers of kango coined during the Meiji era on the model of Classical Chinese to translate modern concepts imported from the West. These words include 科学 ''kagaku'' ('science'), 社会 ''shakai'' ('society'), 自動車 ''jidōsha'' ('automobile'), 電話 ''denwa'' ('telephone') and a host of other basic words. The use of Chinese elements to form words in Japanese is akin to the way that English words are formed using Greek and Latin elements, such as the English word "telephone", which was created from the Greek morphemes ''tele'' ('far') and ''phone'' ('sound'). The Japanese formation 電話 ''denwa'' means 'electric' + 'talk'. Much of this vocabulary was borrowed back into Chinese around the turn of the 20th century and is now used indistinguishably from native Chinese vocabulary. Many of these words have also been borrowed into Korean and Vietnamese.
Many Japanese-created kango refer to uniquely Japanese concepts. Examples include ''daimyō'' (大名), ''waka'' (和歌), ''haiku'' (俳句), ''geisha'' (芸者), ''chōnin'' (町人), ''matcha'' (抹茶), ''sencha'' (煎茶), ''washi'' (和紙), ''jūdō'' (柔道), ''kendō'' (剣道), ''Shintō'' (神道), ''shōgi'' (将棋), ''dōjō'' (道場), ''seppuku'' (切腹), and ''manga'' (漫画).
Another miscellaneous group of words were coined from Japanese phrases or crossed over from ''kun'yomi'' to ''on'yomi''. Examples include ''henji'' (返事 meaning 'reply', from native 返り事 ''kaerigoto'' 'reply'), ''rippuku'' (立腹 'become angry', based on 腹が立つ ''hara ga tatsu'', literally 'stomach stands up'), ''shukka'' (出火 'fire starts or breaks out', based on 火が出る ''hi ga deru''), and ''ninja'' (忍者 from 忍びの者 ''shinobi-no-mono'' meaning 'person of stealth'). In Chinese, the same combinations of characters are often meaningless or have a different meaning. Even a humble expression like ''gohan'' (ご飯 or 御飯 'cooked rice') is a pseudo-''kango'' and not found in Chinese. One interesting example that gives itself away as a Japanese coinage is ''kaisatsu-guchi'' (改札口 literally 'check ticket gate'), meaning the ticket barrier at a railway station.
Finally, quite a few words appear to be Sino-Japanese but are varied in origin, written with ''ateji'' (当て字)— kanji assigned without regard for etymology. In many cases, the characters were chosen only to indicate pronunciation. For example, ''sewa'' ('care, concern') is written 世話, using the ''on'yomi'' "se" + "wa" ('household/society' + 'talk'); although this word is not Sino-Japanese but a native Japanese word believed to derive from ''sewashii'', meaning 'busy' or 'troublesome'; the written form "世話" is simply an attempt to assign plausible-looking characters pronounced "se" and "wa." Other ''ateji'' of this type include 面倒 ''mendō'' ('face' + 'fall down' = 'bother, trouble') and 野暮 ''yabo'' ('fields' + 'livelihood' = 'uncouth'). (The first gloss after each character roughly translates the kanji; the second is the meaning of the word in Japanese.)

Phonetic equivalencies between Mandarin and ''On'yomi''

At first glance, the ''on'yomi'' of many Sino-Japanese words do not resemble the modern Chinese pronunciations at all. However, the observed differences are due to the nature and history of the two languages involved, as well as natural linguistic change over time. Sino-Japanese is very important for comparative linguists as it provides a large amount of evidence for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese.
The following is a rough guide to equivalencies between modern Mandarin Chinese words and modern Sino-Japanese ''on'yomi'' readings.
Unless otherwise noted, in the list below, sounds shown in quotation marks, such as "h" or "g", refer to Hanyu pinyin romanization for Chinese and Hepburn romanization for Japanese. Symbols shown within square brackets, such as or , indicate IPA transcription.
# A major sound-shift has occurred in Mandarin since the time of modern contact with the West. Namely, the sounds written in Pinyin as or , when immediately preceding an "i", "y" or "ü" sound, became "j" (, similar to English "j") or "q" (, similar to English "ch"). This change is called palatalization. As a result, ''Peking'' (北京) changed to ''Běijīng'', and ''Chungking'' (重慶) to ''Chóngqìng''. This shift did not occur in Sino-Japanese. Thus, Chinese ''qì'' (氣, 'breath, air, spirit') corresponds to Japanese ''ki''. In the Southern Min dialect of Chinese (Fujian / Hokkien), Cantonese, and Hakka, it is still pronounced as 'ki'.
# The Japanese language does not have an "-ng" sound, which is very common in Chinese. This sound was borrowed as either or . The combinations and later became "ō" and "yō", respectively, in Japanese. Thus, the Mandarin Chinese reading of "Tokyo" is ''Dōngjīng''; this corresponds to Japanese ''Tōkyō'' (東京), which means 'eastern capital' (keng -> keu -> kyō; ''kei'' is another reading of 'capital').
# The vowels of Chinese sometimes correspond to Sino-Japanese in an apparently haphazard fashion. However, Chinese "ao" often corresponds to Japanese "ō" (usually derived from earlier Sino-Japanese [au]), and Chinese empty rime (represented in pinyin with a "i") often corresponds to (a different sound, also represented with a "i" in Hepburn) in Japanese.
# The distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants ( vs. or vs. ) has been lost in modern Mandarin and many other Chinese languages. The key exception is in Wu dialects (呉語, e.g. Shanghainese). The Shanghainese voiced consonants match the Japanese ''go-on'' (呉音) readings nearly perfectly in terms of voicing. For example, 葡萄 (grape) is pronounced "budo" in Shanghainese and "budō" (< "budau") in Japanese (preserving the voiced consonants [b] and [d]), but "pútáo" in Mandarin. Incidentally, the rising tone of the Mandarin syllables may reflect the earlier voiced quality of the initial consonants.
# In modern Mandarin, all syllables end either in a vowel or in one of a small number of consonant sounds: "n", "ng", or occasionally "r". However, premodern Chinese, like several modern Chinese dialects including Cantonese, allowed several other final consonants including , , , and , and these are preserved in Sino-Japanese (except for -m, which is replaced by -n). However, because Japanese phonology does not allow these consonants to appear at the end of a syllable either, they are usually followed in Sino-Japanese by an additional "i" or "u" vowel. As a result, a one-syllable word in Chinese can become two syllables in Sino-Japanese. For example, Chinese ''tiě'' (铁, 'iron') corresponds to Japanese ''tetsu'' (鉄). This is still pronounced with a final in Cantonese: .
#The consonant "f" in Chinese corresponds to both "h" and "b" in Japanese. This is due to changes in Chinese phonology; the Japanese language has preserved the older forms to some extent, but has gone through phonological shifts itself. Thus, Chinese ''Fó'' (佛, Buddha) corresponds to Japanese ''butsu'' (仏); both derive from the archaic Chinese [but]. In the modern Southern Min dialect of Chinese, this character is still pronounced as [but]. This pattern appears in Latin and English as well: Latin ''frater'' corresponds to English ''brother'' although both words are derived from the same Indo-European root. Another example is the change of the initial f to h (which then became silent) in certain verbs in Spanish when compared to Latin, thus ''hacer'' from ''facere''.
# In addition, bilabial consonants have gone through numerous phonological shifts in both Chinese and Japanese since the time of borrowing. For example, 八 (eight) is "ba" in modern Mandarin Chinese, but "hachi" in modern Japanese. This suggests that the "h" consonant in modern Japanese was closer to "p" in archaic Japanese. (Incidentally, the "h", "b", and "p" sounds share the same kana (hiragana はひふへほ, katakana ハヒフヘホ), and these kana were derived from mostly "b" characters.)
# More complex is the archaic dento-labial nasal sound: The character 武 (strife, martial arts) was pronounced "mvu" in Middle Chinese. The sound is approximated in the Japanese pronunciations "bu" and "mu". However, that sound no longer exists in most modern Chinese dialects, and the character 武 is pronounced "wǔ" in Mandarin, "mo" in Cantonese and "vu" in Hakka.
# The modern Chinese consonant "r" usually corresponds to "ny" or "ni" in Japanese. At the time of borrowing, characters such as 人 ('person') and 日 ('day'), which have an initial "r" sound in modern Chinese, began with a palatal nasal consonant closely approximating French and Italian "gn" and Spanish "ñ". (This distinction is still preserved in some Chinese dialects, such as Hakka.) Thus Chinese ''Rìběn'' (日本, Japan) corresponds to Japanese ''Nippon''. This is also why the character 人 is pronounced "nin" in some contexts, as in "ningen" (人間)— approximating the character's Middle Chinese pronunciation — and "jin" in others, such as "gaijin" (外人)— approximating its more modern pronunciation. In Wu dialects, including Shanghainese, 人 ('person') and 二 ('two') are still pronounced "nin" and "ni", respectively.
# In Middle Chinese, 五 ('five') and similar characters were pronounced with a velar nasal consonant, "ng" ([ŋ]), as its initial. This is no longer true in modern Mandarin, but it remains the case in other Chinese dialects such as Cantonese and Shanghainese. Japanese approximates the Middle Chinese "ng" with "g" or "go"; thus 五 becomes "go". In the Southern Min dialect of Chinese, (Fujian / Hokkien), it is still pronounced as 'go' while in Fuzhou dialect it is still pronounced "ngu".
# The Chinese "hu" consonant sound (as in "huá" or "huī") does not exist in Japanese and is usually omitted, whereas the Chinese "l" sound becomes "r" in Japanese. Thus, Chinese ''Huángbò'' (黄檗) corresponds to Japanese ''Ōbaku'', and ''Rúlái'' (如来) to ''Nyorai''.
# Chinese "h" will often correspond to "k" in Japanese. Old Japanese lacked an sound; Modern Japanese is derived from Old Japanese , which descended in most cases from a Proto-Japonic
★ /p/. Chinese "z" will often correspond to "j"; these are also changes in Chinese. Thus, Chinese ''hànzì'' (漢字) corresponds to Japanese ''kanji'', and ''hànwén'' (漢文, Chinese written language) to ''kanbun''.

Chart of correspondences

Note:

★ MC: Middle Chinese

★ Go: 呉音 ''Go-on'', from the Southern and Northern Dynasties China or Baekje Korea during the 5th and 6th centuries. Go means Wu

★ Kan: 漢音 ''Kan-on'', from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century
Initials:

Place		Phonation
		Voiceless		Voiced
		Unaspirated	Aspirated	Obstruent	Sonorant
Labial	MC	幫・非 ·	滂・敷 ·	並・奉 ·	明・微 ·
	Go	→ →
	Kan	→ →			(some )
Coronal	MC	端・知 ·	透・徹 ·	定・澄 ·	泥・娘 ·
	Go
	Kan				(some )
Lateral	MC				来
	Go
	Kan
Sibilant	MC	精・照 ·	清・穿 ·	従・牀 ·
		心・審 ·		邪・禅 ·
	Go
	Kan
	MC				日
	Go
	Kan
Velar	MC	見	渓	群	疑
	Go
	Kan
	MC	影 ø			喩
	On	ø or or			or
	Kan	ø or or			or
	MC	暁		匣
	Go			or
	Kan

Finals:

★ → →

★ →

★ → or , in Tō-on

★ → → → , ( → , → , → , → , → )

★ → , ,

★ → , ,

References

1. Shibatani, Masayoshi. ''The Languages of Japan (Section 7.2 "Loan words", p.142), Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0521369185
2. 国立国語研究所『テレビ放送の語彙調査Ｉ』（平成7年，秀英出版）Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyuujo, "Terebi Hoosoo no Goi Choosa 1" (1995, Shuuei Publishing)