A
guide to gourmet-lingualism in Japanese
Loan words and food in Japan
Sushi has become very common in Australia these
days – but the same thing can be said about
western food in Japan. The variety of western food
available in Japan is almost overwhelming. But language-wise,
how do we refer to western food items in Japanese?
Basically, the original words are borrowed and the
sounds are rendered in a form natural to Japanese
pronunciation. So there’s ‘omuretsu’
for omelette, ‘supagettii’
for spaghetti, ‘biiru’
for beer and so on. This is good news for English
speakers – try to insert or emphasise a vowel
after each consonant and it may work!
What about things that are not so obviously ‘western’?
For instance, ‘milk’ has a Japanese translation,
gyuunyuu, as well as the loan word
miruku. Many Japanese people are
familiar with Australian beef as oojiibeefu,
but it is often called gooshuusan gyuuniku,
‘Australian produced beef’, as well. Rice,
the national pride (and obsession), can also be in
two forms: raisu and gohan. So, when is the loan word
used in these cases? First, it depends on the context
– when rice accompanies foreign food such as
curry (karee) or beef stroganoff (beefu sutoroganofu),
raisu is used. A bowl of rice served
as part of a traditional Japanese meal would be gohan.
Secondly, it depends on the desired effect –
loan words indicate ‘prestige’ or ‘stylishness’
associated with the west.
An example is the loan word suiitsu
‘(western) sweets’, which has recently
become popular. The Japanese word (o)kashi
was traditionally used for both western and Japanese
sweets.
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