Sino-Japanese refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the Chinese language or has been created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Some grammatical or sentence patterns can also be identified with Sino-Japanese. Sino-Japanese vocabulary is referred to in Japanese as kango (漢語), meaning 'Chinese words'. Kango is one of three broad categories into which the Japanese vocabulary is divided. The others are native Japanese vocabulary (大和言葉 yamato-kotoba or 和語 wago) and borrowings from mainly Western languages (gairaigo). More than 60% of modern Japanese vocabulary is estimated to consist of kango, meaning that vocabulary of Chinese origin plays an even bigger role than Latin does in English.

Background

Chinese vocabulary has exerted an enormous effect on Japanese, partly because at the time of their first contact, Japanese had no written form. The earliest written language to be used in Japan was in fact literary Chinese, which has come to be called kanbun in this context. Use of kanbun essentially required every literate Japanese to be competent in written Chinese. However, it is unlikely that any more than a very small number of Japanese people were ever fluent in spoken Chinese. Instead, Chinese pronunciation was approximated; this vocabulary became the basis of the Sino-Japanese component of the Japanese language.

Sino-Japanese and On'yomi

The term kango is usually identified with on'yomi (音読み, "sound reading"), a system of pronouncing Chinese characters in a way that at one stage approximated the original Chinese. On'yomi is also known as the 'Sino-Japanese reading', and is opposed to kun'yomi (訓読み, "reading by meaning") under which Chinese characters are assigned to, and read as, native Japanese vocabulary.

However, there are cases where the distinction between on'yomi and kun'yomi does not correspond to etymological origin. Chinese characters created in Japan, called , normally only have kun'yomi, but some kokuji have on'yomi. One such character is 働 (as in 働く hataraku, "to work"), which was given the on'yomi dō when used in compounds with other characters, e.g. 労働 rōdō ("labor"). The character 腺 ("gland"), which has the on'yomi sen (e.g. 扁桃腺 hentōsen "tonsils") was intentionally created as a 'kango' and does not have a kun'yomi at all. Although not originating in Chinese, both of these are regarded as 'Sino-Japanese'.

By the same token, kun-yomi is not an absolute guarantee that a word is native Japanese. There are a few Japanese words that, although they appear to have originated in borrowings from Chinese, have such a long history in the Japanese language that they are regarded as native and are thus treated as kun'yomi, e.g., 馬 uma "horse" and 梅 ume. These words are not regarded as belonging to the Sino-Japanese vocabulary.

Words 'Made in Japan'

While much Sino-Japanese vocabulary was borrowed from Chinese, a considerable amount can actually be attributed to the Japanese themselves as they created new vocabulary using Sino-Japanese forms. This is known as wasei kango (和製漢語 'Japanese-created kango').

The best known example is the prolific numbers of kango coined during the Meiji era on the model of Classical Chinese to translate modern concepts imported from the West. This included words like 経済 keizai ('economy'), 科学 kagaku ('science'), 社会 shakai ('society'), 自動車 jidōsha ('automobile'), 電話 denwa ('telephone') and a host of other essential terms. The use of Chinese elements to form words in Japanese is akin to the way that English words are formed using Greek and Latin elements — a good example is English telephone (Greek: tele = far and phone = voice). The Japanese formation 電話 denwa means 'electric' + 'speak'. Much of this vocabulary was borrowed back into Chinese around the turn of the 20th century and is considered indistinguishable from native Chinese vocabulary. It has also been widely borrowed into Korean and Vietnamese.

Ironically, there are many Japanese-created kango that refer to very Japanese phenomena. Examples include daimyō (大名), waka (和歌), haiku (俳句), geisha (芸者), chōnin (町人), matcha (抹茶), sencha (煎茶), washi (和紙), jūdō (柔道), kendō (剣道), Shintō (神道), shōgi (将棋), dōjō (道場), seppuku (切腹), and manga (漫画).

There is also a miscellaneous group of words that were coined from Japanese turns of phrase or crossed over from kun'yomi to on'yomi. Examples include henji (返事 meaning 'reply', from native 返り事 kaerigoto 'reply'), rippuku (立腹 'become angry', based on 腹が立つ hara ga tatsu, literally 'stomach stands up'), shukka (出火 'fire starts or breaks out', based on 火が出る hi ga deru), and ninja (忍者 from 忍びの者 shinobi-no-mono meaning 'person of stealth'). These are often meaningless or do not have the same meaning in Chinese. Even a humble expression like gohan (ご飯 or 御飯 'cooked rice') is a pseudo-kango and therefore not found in Chinese. One interesting example that gives itself away as a Japanese coinage is kaisatsu-guchi (改札口 literally 'check ticket gate'), meaning the ticket barrier at a railway station.

Finally, there are quite a few words that look like Sino-Japanese words but are in fact ones of various origin written with ateji (当て字)—kanji assigned in disregard of true etymology. The characters may be mere representations of pronunciation: Sewa ('care, concern'), for instance, is written 世話, using the on'yomi "se" + "wa" ('household' + 'speak' or 'society' + 'speak'); but far from being a Sino-Japanese word, sewa is a native Japanese word believed to derive from sewashii, meaning 'busy' 'troublesome'; the writing "世話" is simply an attempt to assign plausible-looking characters. Other examples of ateji of this type include 面倒 mendō ('face fall down' = 'bother, trouble') and 野暮 yabo ('fields evening' = 'uncouth'). (The first gloss after each character is only a rough meaning of the kanji; the second, the meaning of the pronounced word in Japanese).

Phonetic equivalencies between Mandarin and On'yomi

At first glance, the on'yomi of many Sino-Japanese words do not resemble the modern Chinese pronunciations at all. However, the observed differences are caused by the nature and history of the two languages involved, as well as the natural change of language over time. Sino-Japanese is very important for comparative linguists as it provides a large amount of evidence for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese.

What follows is a rough guide for understanding equivalencies between modern Mandarin Chinese words and modern Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings.

Unless otherwise noted, in the list below, sounds shown with in quotation marks, such "h" or "g", refer to Hanyu pinyin romanization for Chinese and Hepburn romanization for Japanese; shown within square brackets, such as or , refers to IPA transcription.

1. A major sound-shift occurred in Mandarin since the time of modern contact with the West. Namely, the sounds written in Pinyin as or , when immediately preceding an "i", "y" or "ü" sound, became "j" (, similar to English "j") or "q" (, similar to English "ch"). This change is called palatalization. As a result, Peking (北京) changed to Běijīng, and Chungking (重慶) to Chóngqìng. This shift is not reflected in Sino-Japanese. Thus, Chinese qì (氣, 'breath, air, spirit') corresponds to Japanese ki.
2. The Japanese language does not have an "-ng" sound, which is very common in Chinese. This sound was borrowed as either or . The combinations and later became "ō" and "yō", respectively, in Japanese. Thus, the Mandarin Chinese reading of "Tokyo" is Dōngjīng; this corresponds to Japanese Tōkyō (東京), which means 'eastern capital' (keng -> keu -> kyō; kei is another reading of 'capital').
3. The vowels of Chinese will sometimes correspond apparently unpredictably to Sino-Japanese. However, Chinese "ao" often corresponds to Japanese "ō" (usually derived from earlier Sino-Japanese ^*), and Chinese empty rime (represented in pinyin with a "i") often corresponds to (a different sound, also represented with a "i" in Hepburn) in Japanese.
4. The distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants ( vs. or vs. ) has been lost in modern Mandarin and many other Chinese languages. The key exception is in Wu dialects (呉語, e.g. Shanghainese). The Shanghainese voiced consonants nearly match Japanese's Go-on (呉音) readings perfectly in terms of voicing. For example, 葡萄 (grape) is "budo" in Shanghainese and "budō" (< "budau") in Japanese (preserving the voiced consonants and [d), while it is pútáo in Mandarin. The rising tone of the Mandarin syllables appears to reflect the earlier voiced quality of the initial consonants.
5. In modern Mandarin, syllables can only end in a vowel or in one of a small number of consonant sounds: "n", "ng", or occasionally "r". Premodern Chinese, as well as several modern Chinese languages like Cantonese, however, allow several other final consonants, such as , , , and , which are preserved in Sino-Japanese (except for -m, which is replaced by -n). However, because these consonants cannot appear at the end of a syllable in Japanese either, they are usually followed in Sino-Japanese by an additional "i" or "u" vowel (as a result, a one-syllable word in Chinese can become two syllables in Sino-Japanese). For example, Chinese tiě (铁, iron) corresponds to Japanese tetsu (鉄). This is still pronounced with a final in Cantonese: .
6. The consonant "f" in Chinese corresponds to both "h" and "b" in Japanese. This is due to changes in Chinese; Japanese attempts to preserve the older forms, but itself has gone through phonological shifting. Thus, Chinese Fó (佛, Buddha) corresponds to Japanese Butsu (仏); both derive from the archaic Chinese ^*. This pattern appears in Latin and English as well: Latin frater corresponds to English brother (even though the two words are derived from a common Indo-European root, the idea of a change in the pronunciation of consonants is the same; another example is the change of the initial f to h in certain verbs in Spanish when compared to Latin, thus hacer from facio).
7. In addition, bilabial consonants have gone through numerous phonological shifts in both Chinese languages and Japanese since the time of borrowing. For example, 八 (eight) is "ba" in modern Mandarin Chinese, but "hachi" in modern Japanese. This shows that the "h" consonant in modern Japanese was closer to "p" in old Japanese. (Incidentally, this also explains why "h", "b", and "p" sounds share the same kana (hiragana はひふへほ, katakana ハヒフヘホ), and that these kana were derived from mostly "b" characters)
8. More complex is the archaic dento-labial nasal sound: The character 武 (strife, martial arts) was pronounced "mvu" in Middle Chinese. The sound is approximated in the Japanese pronunciations "bu" and "mu". However, that sound no longer exists in most modern Chinese languages, as the character is pronounced "wǔ" in Mandarin, "mo" in Cantonese and "vu" in Hakka.
9. The modern Chinese consonant "r" usually corresponds to "ny" or "ni" in Japanese. At the time of borrowing, characters that nowadays begin with "r" such as 人 and 日 began with a palatal nasal consonant closely approximating French and Italian "gn" and Spanish "ñ". (This distinction is still preserved in some Chinese languages such as Hakka today.) Thus Chinese Rìběn (日本, Japan) corresponds to Japanese Nippon. This is also why the character 人 is pronounced "nin" in some contexts, as in "ningen" (人間) and approximating the character's Middle Chinese pronunciation, and "jin" in others, such as "gaijin" (外人) (approximating its more modern pronunciation). In Wu dialects, including Shanghainese, 人 (man) and 二 (two) are still pronounced "nin" and "ni", respectively.
10. In Middle Chinese, 五 and similar characters were pronouned as a velar nasal consonant, "ng" (^*). This is no longer the case in modern Mandarin, but remains so in other Chinese languages such as Cantonese and Shanghainese. Japanese approximates the Middle Chinese "ng" with "g" or "go", and thus 五 becomes "go".
11. The Chinese "hu" consonant sound (as in "huá" or "huī") does not exist in Japanese and is usually omitted, whereas the Chinese "l" sound becomes "r" in Japanese. Thus, Chinese Huángbò (黄檗) corresponds to Japanese Ōbaku, and Rúlái (如来) to Nyorai.
12. Chinese "h" will often correspond to "k" in Japanese. Old Japanese lacked an sound; Modern Japanese is derived from Old Japanese . Chinese "z" will often correspond to "j"; these are also changes in Chinese. Thus, Chinese hànzì (漢字) corresponds to Japanese kanji, and hànwén (漢文, Chinese written language) to kanbun.

Chart of correspondences

• MC: Middle Chinese
• Go: 呉音 Go-on, from Wu during the 5th and 6th centuries
• Kan: 漢音 Kan-on, from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century

Initials:

Finals:

• → →
• →
• → or , in Tō-on
• → → → , ( → , → , → , → , → )
• → , ,
• → , ,

See also

• Sino-Korean
• Sino-Vietnamese

On-Lesung | On'yomi | 漢語

Japanese phonology | Archaic Japanese language