Wasei-kango

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).^[7]

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.^{[1]: 218–220 [6]}

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.^[5]

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.^{[8]: 580–581}

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.^{[3]: 163–167, 174} 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.^[9]

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.^{[8]: 580–581}

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.^[10] 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.^{[8]: 587–589}

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.^{[8]: 591–593}

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.^{[8]: 591–593 [11]} 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.^[8]: 593