Japanese words used in Romania
Japanese words used in Romania

Summary/Abstract: Only very few Japanese words are listed in the important dictionaries of the Romanian language. Among these, we find several words of very restricted use and most probably unknown to the vast majority of Romanian speakers, such as kaiten (“manned torpedo in the 2nd World War”); in contrast, many Japanese words naming things that have become increasingly popular in Romania, such as manga or tōfu, are not yet found in dictionaries. The present study aims to reveal to what extent Japanese words are in fact known and used by Romanian native speakers. The research is based on three questionnaires, which were used in order to determine whether the origin and the correct meaning of some Japanese words are known or not, as well as the frequency of these words in conversation. The results of the study show a discrepancy between the Japanese words that are indeed known and used and those recorded by the largest and most recent Romanian language dictionaries. A second finding is the fact that elder respondents tend to know the meaning of words related to the traditional Japanese culture, such as bushidō or cha-no-yu, while younger respondents tend to better know the meaning of words related to the modern, touchable reality, such as manga, karaoke or tōfu.

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