A common feature of Japanese morphology that most people are familiar with even if they don't know Japanese is the use of the suffix san. The suffix san when added to a person's name signifies that the speaker has great respect for the person he or she is addressing. What some people may not know is that in linguistics this type of suffix is called an honorific. There are many other Japanese honorifics as well, including: Kun, Chan, Sensai, and Shi.
Honorifics appear as suffixes and in other forms in many other languages and cultures too. English has honorifics, though they precede and are not attached to a person's name. English honorifics include: Mr., Mrs., Miss, Master, Sir, Dr. and the like. You might be surprised to know that even words like dude, bro, and girl can be used as honorifics.
Showing posts with label Japanese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese. Show all posts
Monday, October 6, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Eric Clapton in Japanese
While checking out a blog called "Who? Wot! Me?,
"
I came across this picture with the caption "What do Japanese people really think of Eric Clapton?"
I, personally, am a big fan of Eric Clapton's music, but I still found humor in this Japanese attempt at spelling his name in English. There is, however, a very valid reason that the Japanese would spell Clapton's name as such and that is: the Japanese language does not have the "l- sound." Actually, the /l/ phoneme, as it is called, is unique among American English speech sounds.
The /l/ phoneme is classified as a sonorant approximant liquid by phoneticians - as is the /r/ phoneme. Although the /l/ and /r/ phonemes do have articulatory differences, many non-native American English speakers have difficulties differentiating between the two. These difficulties result in non-native speakers of English most frequently replacing the English /l/ phoneme with the /r/ phoneme.
This is why the Japanese pronounce Eric Clapton as Eric Crapton, not necessarily because they don't care for his music.
"I came across this picture with the caption "What do Japanese people really think of Eric Clapton?"
I, personally, am a big fan of Eric Clapton's music, but I still found humor in this Japanese attempt at spelling his name in English. There is, however, a very valid reason that the Japanese would spell Clapton's name as such and that is: the Japanese language does not have the "l- sound." Actually, the /l/ phoneme, as it is called, is unique among American English speech sounds.
The /l/ phoneme is classified as a sonorant approximant liquid by phoneticians - as is the /r/ phoneme. Although the /l/ and /r/ phonemes do have articulatory differences, many non-native American English speakers have difficulties differentiating between the two. These difficulties result in non-native speakers of English most frequently replacing the English /l/ phoneme with the /r/ phoneme.
This is why the Japanese pronounce Eric Clapton as Eric Crapton, not necessarily because they don't care for his music.
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