German words in Japanese

This is the first time I’m writing an article about something that’s not even remotely related to web development. But you know what, I can do whatever I want on my own website. Isn’t that great?

As a German, married to a Japanese woman, I keep stumbling over German words in Japanese and it makes me go “what?” なに？ every single time.

You probably know, or at least wouldn’t be surprised, that Japanese has tons of English loanwords, but there are actually quite a lot of German words that somehow made it into Japan. And the fun part? Some of them have completely different meanings now!

So I’ve started collecting them and asked my wonderful wife to help me with recording the pronounciations (Thank you ♥).

A quick note on Japanese #

Japanese uses three writing systems (yes, seriously). The one we care about here is カタカナ (Katakana), which is used for loanwords. Since Japanese is syllable-based (like ‘ka’, ‘ki’, ‘ku’), foreign words need to fit this pattern. For some sounds there’s no represenation at all. But don’t be mistaken, we’re doing the same with Japanese words in our languages.

That’s why “Thomas” becomes トーマス (tō-ma-su) and “Arbeit” becomes アルバイト (a-ru-ba-i-to).

Everyday words #

These are all relatively common words in Japanese (and contain some of my personal favourites). I’ve marked some special words with ★.

Arbeit アルバイト ★ · listen
While “Arbeit” in German refers to all kinds of work (from academic papers to manual labour), its Japanese counterpart specifically means “part-time job” in Japanese. Often shortened to バイト (baito).

Gelände ゲレンデ ★ · listen
While meaning “terrain” in German, in Japanese it specifically refers to a ski slope. There’s also a very popular Japanese song with that title.

Gummi グミ ★ · listen
Interestingly, in Japanese this specifically means “gummy candy” (like HARIBO™) rather than rubber or other gummy materials like in German. We even call condoms “Gummi” in Germany.

Kapsel カプセル · listen
Used for medicine capsules and space capsules in both languages.

Leber レバー · listen
Means “liver” in both languages, but in Japanese it usually refers to liver meat.

Märchen メルヘン · listen
While meaning “fairy tale” in German, in Japanese it’s used more broadly for anything with a fairy-tale-like, romantic quality. I guess Grimm’s Märchen had a big impact on them.

Meister マイスター · listen
Both languages use it for “master of craft,” but the Japanese took it to the next level. You can find マイスター of everything from coffee brewing to sake and shochu expertise.

Rucksack リュックサック · listen
While also used in English, this clearly came directly from German without the detour. Often shortened to リュック (ryukku) in Japanese.

Schlafsack シュラフ ★ · listen
Shortened from “Schlafsack”, meaning sleeping bag in German. They dropped the most important part of the word, though. “Schlaf” just means “sleep” in German. It’s like calling a sleeping bag just a “sleep” in English. Imagine going camping and saying “Don’t forget to pack your sleep!”. I have to mention, my brother in law didn’t know this one and he’s a Japanese teacher.

Wappen ワッペン · listen
Means “coat of arms” in German, but in Japanese it refers to any kind of patch or emblem you can sew on clothes.

Academic #

When Japan started modernising in the Meiji period (1868-1912), they looked at German universities (among others) for inspiration. These terms came along with that influence and are still commonly used in Japanese universities today:

Ideologie イデオロギー · listen
Same meaning in both languages, referring to a system of ideas and ideals – an ideology.

Kategorie カテゴリー · listen
While similar to English “category”, the Japanese pronunciation follows the German pattern.

Seminar ゼミナール ★ · listen
This is a weird one. There are actually two “seminar” in Japanese.
ゼミナール (zemināru) is used for exercises held at university, セミナー (seminā) meaning seminars for working people. University students often shorten it to ゼミ (zemi).

Thema テーマ · listen
While similar to English “theme”, the Japanese pronunciation clearly follows German “Thema”.

Medical #

German doctors like Philipp Franz von Siebold (シーボルト) were quite influential in Japan. At least until 1829, when Siebold was arrested and expelled from Japan for stealing maps and other sensitive materials. But Japanese people and medicine personell still use many German words related to that:

Adrenalin アドレナリン · listen
Same meaning in both languages. Also not far away from the English “adrenaline”.

Allergie アレルギー · listen
Same meaning in both languages. While not far away from the English “allergy”, it’s clearly closer to German. The English word would be アラジー.

Gips ギプス · listen
We Germans got this word from the greek word for “chalk” but it stands for “orthopedic cast” in English.

Karte カルテ ★ · listen
This one is interesting. As a German you might think this would be a “map”, but it’s not. It’s specifically referring to the chart you get at your doctor. I can only speculate, but they probably dropped some word before “Karte”, since that only means “card”. Maybe “Krankenkarte”?

Kranke クランケ · listen
From German “der/die Kranke” meaning “the sick person/patient”. Much less common in modern Japanese compared to other medical terms. My wife didn’t know this one herself.

Neurose ノイローゼ · listen
While similar to the English “neurosis”, the Japanese word clearly comes from German “Neurose”.

Röntgen レントゲン · listen
Named after Wilhelm Röntgen who discovered X-rays. While English speakers opted for the boring “X-ray”, both German and Japanese honored the scientist’s name. His German name is however similarly incompatible with the language as mine: グンター (guntā).

Virus ウイルス · listen
Both languages referring to the English word “virus”.

Final thoughts #

I’m not a linguist, so please forgive me if I made any mistake or wrong assumption (let me know, though!). Also keep in mind my wife is speaking the Kansai dialect in Japanese while I’m speaking Swabian German.

Anyway, if this was something you found interesting, please let me know on Mastodon.