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Gairaigo are Japanese words originating from, or based on, foreign-language, generally Western, terms.These include wasei-eigo (Japanese pseudo-anglicisms).Many of these loanwords derive from Portuguese, due to Portugal's early role in Japanese-Western interaction; Dutch, due to the Netherlands' relationship with Japan amidst the isolationist policy of sakoku during the Edo period; and from ...
The Japanese language makes use of a system of honorific speech, called keishō (敬称), which includes honorific suffixes and prefixes when talking to, or referring to others in a conversation. Suffixes are often gender-specific at the end of names, while prefixes are attached to the beginning of many nouns.
From this time until the Japanese defeat at the end of World War II, "Kimigayo" was understood to mean the long reign of the Emperor. With the adoption of the Constitution of Japan in 1947, the Emperor became no longer a sovereign who ruled by divine right , but a human who is a symbol of the state and of the unity of the people as a ...
For example, 読 （ よ ） む, yomu (read) becomes o-yomi ni naru, with the prefix o-added to the i-form of the verb, and the verb ending ni naru. The verb ending -(r)areru can also be used, such as yomareru. Nouns also undergo substitution to express respect. The normal Japanese word for person hito (人) becomes kata (方) in
In Japanese, each digit/number has at least one native Japanese (), Sino-Japanese (), and English-origin reading.Furthermore, variants of readings may be produced through abbreviation (i.e. rendering ichi as i), consonant voicing (i.e sa as za; see Dakuten and handakuten), gemination (i.e. roku as rokku; see sokuon), vowel lengthening (i.e. ni as nii; see chōonpu), or the insertion of the ...
Japanese commonly use proverbs, often citing just the first part of common phrases for brevity. For example, one might say i no naka no kawazu (井の中の蛙, 'a frog in a well') to refer to the proverb i no naka no kawazu, taikai o shirazu (井の中の蛙、大海を知らず, 'a frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean').
For example, Imperial Japanese Navy submarines during the Second World War had official designations beginning with I (displacement 1,000 tonnes or more), Ro (500 to 999 tonnes), and Ha (less than 500 tonnes). Also, Japanese tanks had official designations partly using Iroha ordering, such as Chi-ha (ha meaning the third model).
A kakekotoba (掛詞) or pivot word is a rhetorical device used in the Japanese poetic form waka.This trope uses the phonetic reading of a grouping of kanji (Chinese characters) to suggest several interpretations: first on the literal level (e.g. 松, matsu, meaning "pine tree"), then on subsidiary homophonic levels (e.g. 待つ, matsu, meaning "to wait").