Wasei-kango

For Japanese words borrowed into English, see List of English words of Japanese origin.

For Japanese-derived words and meanings borrowed into Chinese, see Japanese loanwords in Chinese.

For modern loanwords borrowed from Chinese varieties into Japanese, see Modern Chinese loanwords in Japanese.

和製漢語
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	和制汉语
Traditional Chinese	和製漢語
Literal meaning	Japanese-made Chinese words
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hézhì Hànyǔ Bopomofo ㄏㄜˊ ㄓˋ ㄏㄢˋ ㄩˇ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hertzyh Hannyeu Wade–Giles He2-zhi4-han4-yu3 Yale Romanization Héjì Hànyǔ IPA [xɤ̌ ʈʂî.xân ỳ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wòhjai Hōnyúh Jyutping Wo4zai3 Hon3jyu5 IPA [wɔ˩ tsɐj˧.hɔn˧ jy˩˧] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Hê-chè Hàn-gú
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Hòa chế Hán ngữ
Chữ Hán	和製漢語
Korean name
Hangul	화제한어
Hanja	和製漢語
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Hwajehaneo McCune–Reischauer Hwajehanŏ
Japanese name
Kanji	和製漢語
Hiragana	わせいかんご
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Wasei Kango Kunrei-shiki Wasei Kango

Wasei-kango (Japanese: 和製漢語; lit. 'Japanese-made Chinese words') are words formed in Japan from Chinese-derived morphemes. In their central sense, they are written in kanji and read with the on'yomi pronunciations of the characters, and are classified within the Japanese Sino-Japanese vocabulary known as kango. The category includes words whose written form was created in Japan and, in broader treatments, Chinese forms that acquired a new structure or specialized meaning in Japanese. Its boundaries therefore vary among scholars.

Wasei-kango and Japanese loanwords are defined by different relationships. Wasei-kango are identified by their formation and history within Japanese. Only those that were subsequently borrowed into Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, or another language are loanwords in the receiving language. Conversely, Chinese has borrowed Japanese elements that are not wasei-kango, including written forms of native Japanese words, European loanwords transmitted through Japanese, and words transcribed from Japanese pronunciation.

Definition and scope

Japanese vocabulary is commonly divided by origin into native Japanese words (wago), Sino-Japanese words (kango), other loanwords (gairaigo), and hybrids. Wasei-kango are normally grouped with kango rather than with wago or gairaigo.

Liwei Chen classifies wasei-kango by both form and meaning. His account distinguishes three types created independently in Japan from two types based on forms already attested in Chinese.

Broad group	Type	Description	Examples
Independent formation in Japan	Change from a native to a Sino-Japanese reading	A Japanese expression written in kanji is reanalysed and read with on'yomi	おほね → 大根; ではる → 出張
	Distinctive Japanese combination or spelling	Characters are combined or respelled within Japanese	焼亡, 量見, 選考
	Translation terms from the late Edo and Meiji periods	A new compound is made for a foreign concept	抽象, 哲学
Based on a Chinese form	Different internal structure or meaning	The written form is attested in Chinese but is interpreted through a different Japanese compound structure	激動, 安置, 洋行
	Classical form applied to a foreign concept	An older Chinese expression is assigned a modern technical meaning; these are also called "semi-wasei-kango"	社会, 経済, 文化

The breadth of this classification is disputed. Chen treats phonological form, morphology, and meaning together, and discusses some native, mixed-reading, and jukujikun forms within a broader account of Japanese-made Chinese-character vocabulary. Tajima argues that a Sino-Japanese reading is a necessary condition for kango and objects to including clearly established native or mixed readings merely because their written form consists of kanji. There is similar variation in the treatment of semantic change. Some studies include Chinese forms that developed new meanings in Japanese, while Chen excludes gradual semantic change accompanying ordinary borrowing but includes cases in which Japanese compound structure produced a distinct meaning.

Identification therefore draws on three kinds of evidence: the form and reading of the compound; comparison of its Chinese and Japanese meanings and internal structure; and dated evidence from dictionaries, translations, and ordinary texts. An early occurrence of the written form establishes an attestation, but does not by itself identify a coiner, the modern meaning, or the direction in which the word later spread.

Meiji era

The Meiji era was an especially productive period for Chinese-character translation terms. Japanese writers formed new compounds and assigned new technical senses to older expressions while translating European works in politics, philosophy, law, and science. Examples include the newly formed tetsugaku (哲学; philosophy) and denwa (電話; telephone), as well as older forms such as shakai (社会; society), keizai (経済; economy), and bunka (文化; culture) that acquired modern conceptual meanings.

From the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth, many terms used in modern Japanese entered Chinese through translations and the work of Chinese students in Japan. Because the written form could be retained and read with Chinese pronunciations, the words were readily integrated into written Chinese. Their apparent familiarity can obscure their route of transmission: a word may already have an old Chinese form, a modern meaning standardized in Japan, and a later return to Chinese.

Wasei-kango were not created in a single direction. Chinese works on Western learning, Chinese–English dictionaries, Japanese translations, and Japanese bilingual dictionaries all contributed to the vocabulary. Japanese scholars purchased and consulted nineteenth-century dictionaries produced in China, including Robert Morrison's A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1822), An English and Chinese Vocabulary in Court Dialect (1844), and Justus Doolittle's Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language (1872). Miyata re-examined 91 modern words previously classified as wholly Japanese in origin and concluded that 49 originated in Chinese sources, while seven remained unresolved. Modern etymological research consequently studies each word's attestations, meanings, translations, circulation, and establishment rather than assigning the entire vocabulary to one national source.

History

Pre-Meiji period

Since antiquity, the Japanese have supplemented their native vocabulary, known as yamato kotoba, by borrowing many words from Chinese. After integrating Chinese words into their vocabulary, Japanese speakers also created local kango.

One source of wasei-kango was the reinterpretation of a native expression through the on'yomi readings of its written characters. The word for daikon, 大根, changed from the native reading おおね (ōne) to だいこん (daikon). The meaning expressed by 腹が立つ (hara ga tatsu, "to become angry") was condensed into the Sino-Japanese compound 立腹 (rippuku, "anger"). Terms were also formed for Japanese institutions, occupations, and cultural practices, including 芸者 (geisha) and 介錯 (kaishaku).

Meiji Restoration

As Western influence intensified during the nineteenth-century Meiji Restoration, Japanese scholars required terminology for books and disciplines imported from Europe. They created some expressions within Japanese, redefined classical Chinese forms, and adopted terms recorded in Chinese works and Chinese–Western dictionaries. These processes operated together rather than as separate national vocabularies.

Some existing words were repurposed. 世界, for example, was a Classical Chinese Buddhist expression before becoming the ordinary modern word for "world". Other forms were new Japanese creations, including tetsugaku (哲学; philosophy) and denwa (電話; telephone). The Meiji period greatly expanded this translated vocabulary, but a word's presence in Meiji Japanese does not alone demonstrate that it was coined in Japan.

Following the Meiji Restoration, Japanese printed works and bilingual dictionaries helped standardize and circulate these terms. From the late nineteenth century, many forms used in Japanese spread into modern Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese, generally retaining their characters or character-based morphemes while receiving local Sino-Xenic pronunciations.

Transmission to Chinese

Chinese borrowings from Japanese include newly created compounds and established Chinese forms that returned with a modern meaning. They also include Japanese items outside the category of wasei-kango. Taiwan Mandarin, for example, borrowed the written form and meaning of the native Japanese word 物語 (monogatari), European loanwords represented in Japanese with characters, and phonetic forms such as ōbāsan and ichiban. The history of a Japanese loanword in Chinese is therefore a question of transmission, while classification as wasei-kango is a question about its formation inside Japanese.

Chinese-language etymological research also uses the concept of an "activated word" for a form that existed earlier in Chinese at low frequency but became common under Japanese influence. This category separates the existence of an older written form from the later increase in use or establishment of a specialized meaning.

Transmission to Korean and Vietnamese

The shared use of Chinese characters in modern East Asia allowed terms used in Japan to be borrowed through their written form. They were generally pronounced with Sino-Korean or Sino-Vietnamese readings rather than Japanese pronunciation. The timing, scale, and route of transmission differed between Korea and Vietnam.

In Korean, Japanese-made terms are attested before the formal annexation of Korea. Wonjae Chang examined 3,621 kango in the 1895–1896 Kukmin sohak tokpon school reader and The Independent newspaper. Of these, 2,393 (66.0 percent) had the same written form as words in contemporary Japanese sources. After comparing the use of 2,290 same-form, same-meaning items in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean materials, Chang judged 229 (10.0 percent) likely to have been made in Japan. The figures also show that a shared written form is not sufficient evidence of Japanese origin.

Contact during the Japanese colonial period further expanded the use of modern character vocabulary. Japanese 社会, 警察, and 主義 are read in Korean as 사회 (sahoe), 경찰 (gyeongchal), and 주의 (juui). The native Japanese reading 組合 (くみあい, kumiai) was likewise borrowed through its written form and read 조합 (johap). Such Japanese-source character words are broader than wasei-kango in the narrow sense.

Vietnamese already had a large layer of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary borrowed from earlier Chinese. A new wave of character terms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries included forms created in Japan or assigned modern meanings there. Examples include tự do (自由, "freedom"), xã hội (社会, "society"), khoa học (科学, "science"), and nguyên tử (原子, "atom"). Although modern Vietnamese normally writes them in the Vietnamese alphabet, their syllables preserve Sino-Vietnamese readings.

Some terms passed directly from Japanese, while others reached Vietnamese through Chinese. cộng hòa (共和, "republic"), kinh tế (経済, "economy"), and mỹ thuật (美術, "fine art") have been identified as examples of the Chinese-mediated route. Direct Japanese influence was smaller than in Chinese or Korean because of French colonial language policy, French-language education, and the spread of the Vietnamese alphabet. Meaning could change after borrowing: bác sĩ (博士) means a medical doctor in Vietnamese, while the corresponding form can refer to a doctoral degree in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

Examples

The following table preserves commonly compared modern Chinese-character forms across four languages. The entries illustrate how a written form or its morphemes can receive local readings. A matching form does not by itself establish that the word was coined in Japan: individual items may have earlier Chinese attestations, modern meanings established in Japanese, or different routes into Korean and Vietnamese.

Chinese		Japanese		Korean		Vietnamese	Meaning
Traditional/ Simplified	Mandarin (Pinyin)	Kanji	Rōmaji	Hangul	Revised Romanization
中將, 中将	zhōngjiàng	中将	chūjō	중장	jungjang	trung tướng	lieutenant general; vice admiral
革命	gémìng	革命	kakumei	혁명	hyeogmyeong	cách mạng/mệnh	revolution
民主	mínzhǔ	民主	minshu	민주	minju	dân chủ	democracy
共和國, 共和国	gònghéguó	共和国	kyōwakoku	공화국	gonghwaguk	cộng hòa	republic
主義, 主义	zhǔyì	主義	shugi	주의	juui	chủ nghĩa	ideology; -ism
世界	shìjiè	世界	sekai	세계	segye	thế giới	world
國際, 国际	guójì	国際	kokusai	국제	gukje	quốc tế	international
出超	chūchāo	出超	shutchō	출초	chulcho	xuất siêu	trade surplus
銀行, 银行	yínháng	銀行	ginkō	은행	eunhaeng	ngân hàng	bank
電話, 电话	diànhuà	電話	denwa	전화	jeonhwa	điện thoại	telephone
廣告, 广告	guǎnggào	広告	kōkoku	광고	gwanggo	quảng cáo	advertisement
N/A	—N/a	病院	byōin	병원	byeongwon	bệnh viện	hospital
哲學, 哲学	zhéxué	哲学	tetsugaku	철학	cheolhak	triết học	philosophy
物理	wùlǐ	物理	butsuri	물리	mulli	vật lí	physics
工業, 工业	gōngyè	工業	kōgyō	공업	gongeop	công nghiệp	industry

See also

• Classical compounds in English and other Indo-European languages
• Sino-Xenic vocabulary
• Wasei-eigo

External links

The following historical dictionaries contain Chinese-character translations discussed in research on modern East Asian terminology. Their inclusion records early attestations and does not by itself establish the coiner or later route of transmission.

• Robert Morrison, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1822): 使徒, 審判, 法律, 醫學, 自然的, 新聞, 精神, 単位, 行為, 言語
• Samuel Wells Williams, An English and Chinese Vocabulary in Court Dialect (1844): 內閣, 選舉, 新聞紙, 文法, 領事
• Walter Henry Medhurst, English and Chinese Dictionary (1847–1848): 知識, 幹事, 物質, 偶然, 教養, 天主, 小說, 本質
• Wilhelm Lobscheid, English and Chinese Dictionary, with Punti and Mandarin Pronunciation (1866–1869): 蛋白質, 銀行, 幻想, 想像, 保險, 文學, 元帥, 原理, 右翼, 法則, 戀愛, 讀者
• Justus Doolittle, Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language (1872): 電報, 電池, 光線, 分子, 地質論, 物理, 動力, 光學, 國會, 函數, 微分學