| Japanese Abbreviated And Contracted Words |
Article Index for Japanese |
Website Links For Japanese |
Information AboutJapanese Abbreviated And Contracted Words |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JAPANESE ABBREVIATED AND CONTRACTED WORDS | |
| japanese vocabulary | |
| abbreviated and contracted words | |
|
The names of some very familiar companies are also contractions. For example, Toshiba is a contraction of "Tokyo Shibaura", and Nissan is a contraction of "Nippon Sangyo". The contractions may be commonly used, or they may be specific to a particular group of people. For example the "Kokuritsu Kankyo Kenkyujo" (, National Institute For Environmental Sciences Of Japan , NIES) is known as ''Kanken'' () by its employees, but this terminology is not familiar to most Japanese. PATTERNS OF CONTRACTION In contracted kanji words, the most common pattern of contraction is to take the first kanji of each word and put them together as a Portmanteau . In loanwords and names, the most common pattern is to take the first two Mora e (or Kana ) of each of the two words, and combine them forming a new, single word. For example "family restaurant" or ''famirī resutoran'' becomes ''famiresu''. Yōon sounds, sounds represented using a kana ending in ''i'' and a small ''ya'', ''yu'' or ''yo'' kana, such as ''kyo'' count as one mora. Japanese Long Vowel s count as two morae, and may disappear (the same can be said for the Sokuon , or small ''tsu''); Harry Potter, originally ''Harī Pottā'', is contracted to ''Haripota'', or otherwise be altered; actress Kyoko Fukada, ''Fukada Kyōko'', becomes ''Fukakyon''. These abbreviated names are so common in Japan that many companies initiate abbreviations of the names of their own products. For example, the animated series Pretty Cure marketed itself under the four-character abbreviated name ''purikyua''. LONG KANJI NAMES LOANWORDS Three and four character loanwords ABBREVIATIONS CREATED WORDS Many abbreviations, especially four-character words, have been created for particular products or TV shows. CONTRACTIONS OF NAMES HIGHWAYS AND RAILWAY LINES Many highways and railway lines have names that are contractions of the names of their endpoints. For example, ( Tomei Expressway ) takes one kanji (''tō'') from ( Tokyo ) and the other (''mei'') from ( Nagoya ; its pronunciation changes from the Kun'yomi ''na'' to the On'yomi ''mei''). ( Tokyu Toyoko Line ) links Tokyo and Yokohama ), taking part of its name from each city. Other Examples include: Sometimes names of this type preserve older place names. For instance, the character is taken from the word ('' Musashi ''), which was once the name of the Japanese Province in which the city of Tokyo was located, can still be seen in the company names ( Tobu or "East Musashi"), ( Seibu or "West Musashi"), and in the ( Nanbu Line or "South Musashi Line"). Some other examples: SINGLE LETTERS AS ABBREVIATIONS Many single letters of the Latin Alphabet have names that resemble the pronunciations of Japanese words or characters. Japanese people use them in contexts such as advertising to catch the reader's attention. Other uses of letters include abbreviations of spellings of words. Here are some examples:
LONGER ROMAJI ABBREVIATIONS |
|
|