A glossary of Japanese linguistic terms used in the body of this dictionary. See also Appendix:Glossary for terms not specific to Japanese. This page can be linked to using {{ja-glossary}} (alias {{ja-lg}}).

A

• Atamadakagata (頭高型), (literally, “head-high pattern”) – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which the first mora of the word is of high pitch followed by a drop to low pitch. In numerical notation, it is written as [1]. Example: 雨(あめ) (ame, “rain”).
• Ateji (当て字) – kanji representing a sound that is not from the original phoneme associated with the kanji's used reading. Example: 寿(す)司(し) (on'yomi is associated with Sinitic phoneme, but the word is non-Sinitic), 時(と)計(けい) (originally unrelated kanji 土(と)圭(けい)). In some ateji, kanji is chosen to make it a phono-semantic matching, e.g. 大(おお)喜(ぎ)利(り).

B

• Bound form (被(ひ)覆(ふく)形(けい) (hifukukei)), (literally, “covering form”) – a unit of language that can only be used as part of a word, not as a word on its own. For example, the word 神(かみ) (kami, “god”) has a bound form 神(かむ) (kamu-) which may appear in compounds (e.g. 神(かむ)さぶ (kamusabu). Other examples of free–bound pairs include 雨(あめ) (ame, “rain”) and 雨(あま) (ama-), as in 雨(あま)ガッパ (amagappa, “raincoat”), and 木(き) (ki, “tree”) and 木(こ) (ko-) as in 木(こ)の葉(は) (ko no ha, “tree leaf”). See also: WT:AJPX § Standalone forms and combining forms.

C

• Commonly used kanji – English translation of jōyō kanji.

D

• Daiyōji (代用字) – a kanji in the jōyō kanji or tōyō kanji list that is used to replace another kanji not in the list. The two kanji are usually homophonic or semi-homophonic.

G

• Gikun (義訓) has two meanings:
  1. Synonym of jukujikun.
  2. The use of a kanji for its meaning, i.e. kun'yomi. Sometimes used when a new kanji with a narrower meaning replaces (possibly several) previously-used kanji in a term, e.g. 蔑 in 蔑(ないがし)ろ (naigashiro).
• Go-on (呉音) – the pronunciation of kanji before the arrival of kan'on. One of the on'yomi categories. Go-on is the earliest of all borrowed pronunciations, mostly used in Buddhist terms, but also widely used in normal vocabulary.
• Grade n kanji – one of the grade divisions of the kyōiku kanji (educational kanji) ranging from 1 through 6, referring to the grades in primary school. "Grade S" refers to kanji taught in secondary school.

H

• Heibangata (平板型), (literally, “flat pattern”) – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which there is a generally high pitch throughout the word and after which attached particles maintain the high pitch. In numerical notation, it is written as [0]. Example: 風(かぜ) (kaze, “wind”).
• Hiragana (平仮名) — one of the two Japanese syllabaries. Used to write okurigana, particles, and some content words.
• Hyōgai kanji 表外漢字 or hyōgaiji (表外字) – kanji outside the jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji lists; most (but not all) such kanji are written in kyūjitai (traditional character forms), while marginally some simplifications (shinjitai) are applied.

I

• i-adjective (形(けい)容(よう)詞(し) (keiyōshi)) – a Japanese adjective with an attributive form that ends in い (-i)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY

J

• Jinmeiyō kanji (人名用漢字) – kanji used for names per the official list, supplement to jōyō kanji. May mean either just the jinmeiyō kanji, or jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji, meaning “all kanji on official lists”. Opposite of hyōgaiji.
• Jōyō kanji (常用漢字) – commonly used kanji, per official list.
• Jūbakoyomi (重箱読み) – pronunciation of a two-kanji compound, with the first kanji on'yomi and the second kun'yomi.
• Jukujikun (熟字訓) – an inseparable reading of a multi-kanji term, e.g. 今日(きょう) (kyō, “today”). Also known as gikun.

K

• Kango (漢語) — Sino-Japanese vocabulary, i.e. borrowings from Middle Chinese into Japanese, or words formed from Chinese morphemes within Japanese.
• Kanji (漢字) – Chinese characters, as used in the Japanese writing system.
• Kan'on (漢音) – the kanji pronunciation brought to Japan during the Japanese missions to Tang China. One of the on'yomi categories. Kan'on resembles the contemporary Chang'an Chinese dialect, and is more systematic compared to other borrowings.
• Kan'yōon (慣用音) – the kanji pronunciation derived from a corrupted or changed form of other regular on'yomi. One of the on'yomi categories.
• Katakana (片仮名) — one of the two Japanese syllabaries. It is used to write some non-kango loanwords and content words. It is also standard in biology to write the names of all organisms in katakana.
• Kateikei (仮定形) – A katsuyōkei (conjugated form) used for conditional and subjunctive forms, using the -ba ending.

  Termed izenkei (已然形) in the Classical and Old Japanese, where this form was also used as the main verb in an exclamatory sentence.

• Katsuyōkei (活用形) – In traditional Japanese grammar, the 6 "stem forms", mizenkei, ren'yōkei, shūshikei, rentaikei, kateikei and meireikei, from which all the others may be derived in a similar fashion to the principal parts used for Latin and other languages.

  Originated in the Edo period, the katsuyōkei (conjugated form) system more closely reflects the vowels of the Classical Japanese verbs than the modern ones. It fails to address some euphonic sound shifts in Modern Japanese such as the -a/-o split in mizenkei. Moreover, this system has been criticized because the six forms are not equivalent, with one being solely a combinatory stem, three solely word forms, and two being both. It also fails to capture some inflected forms. However, five of the forms are basic inflected verb forms, and the system also describes almost all extended forms consistently.

• Kun'yomi (訓読み) – a reading of a kanji that is not derived from the kanji's original pronunciation borrowed from Chinese.
  • Most kun'yomi are of native Japonic origin, with a few exceptions:
    1. Borrowed from Chinese, but attributed to a different kanji, e.g. 酷(ひど)い (hidoi, “awful”) from Chinese-derived 非(ひ)道(どう) (hidō, “unjust, inhuman”).
    2. Borrowed from languages other than Chinese, e.g. 哩(マイル) (mairu, “mile (unit)”), from English mile.

       • Most of this kind of kun'yomi are dated, with such words being written only in katakana, e.g. マイル (mairu)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY.

  • Kun'yomi is limited to single-kanji readings. For similar readings of inseparable multi-kanji terms, see jukujikun.
• Kokkun (国訓) — a kanji kun reading with a meaning different from its original Chinese meaning.
• Kokuji (国字) – kanji made by the Japanese for the Japanese language, such as 峠 (“mountain pass”). Some of these have been adopted into other languages that use Chinese characters.
• Kyōiku kanji (教育漢字) – Elementary school kanji; literally, “educational kanji”. The elementary level of the jōyō kanji, divided into 6 grades.
• Kyūjitai (旧字体), (literally, “old character form”) – Japanese traditional characters. This term often refers to the pre-reform appearance of characters in the jōyō list.^[1] Opposite of shinjitai. They closely resemble Chinese traditional characters and are virtually identical to Korean hanja, with occasional differences.

M

• Meireikei (命令形) – A katsuyōkei (conjugated form) expressing the imperative mood.
• Mizenkei (未然形) – A katsuyōkei (conjugated form) used for plain negative (of verbs), causative and passive constructions. The most common use of this form is with the auxiliary ない (-nai)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY used to negate verbs. The -ō version is used for volitionalCategory:Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary#volitional expression and formed by a euphonic change.

  This form never occurs in isolation but only as a stem to which several particles and auxiliaries are attached. This stem originated from resegmentation of an initial *a of several suffixes (auxiliary verbs) as part of the stem.

• Moji kotoba (文字詞) – A subset of nyōbō kotoba (court-lady language) where euphemistic words are formed by taking the first one or two morae from a given word, and appending the word 文字(もじ) (moji, “character”).

N

• na-adjective (形(けい)容(よう)動(どう)詞(し) (keiyōdōshi)) – an adjective with an attributive form that ends in な (na)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY
• Nakadakagata (中高型) (literally, “middle-high pattern”) – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which the second mora in the word carries high pitch, followed by a later drop to low pitch. Example: 表情(ひょうじょう) (hyōjō, “(facial) expression”) has a pitch drop after the じょ.
• Nanori (名乗り) – special kanji readings used exclusively in Japanese names. The nanori reading of a kanji is often a pronunciation assumed from its synonym or near-synonym.
• Nyōbō kotoba (女房詞) – cant originally used by court ladies in the Muromachi period; several words have since gained widespread use, such as おにぎり (onigiri, “rice ball”)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY or ひもじい (himojī, “very hungry, starving”)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY. See also moji kotoba.

O

• Odakagata (尾高型)) (literally, “tail-high pattern”) – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which the pitch is high throughout the word but drops after the final mora, causing attached particles to take low pitch. Example: 山(やま) (yama, “mountain”).
• On'yomi (音読み), ondoku (音読) or simply on – a reading of a kanji that is derived from the kanji's original pronunciation borrowed from Chinese, or rarely, as in kan'yōon, misunderstood as being so. On'yomi readings are generally categorized into go-on, kan'on, tōon and kan'yōon.
  • On'yomi is a "closed" category, i.e, it does not acquire new members. New borrowings of Chinese characters' pronunciations after the 20th century are generally not considered to be on'yomi.
• Okurigana (送り仮名) – kana suffixes following kanji stems. For example, in 見(み)る (miru, “to look, see”), the る is okurigana.

R

• Rendaku (連濁) – voicing of an unvoiced initial consonant in a non-initial component of a word. Usually seen when joining words or morphemes together and in reduplication.
• Renjō (連声) – sandhi, a kind of sound fusion between morphemes, as in 天(てん)皇(のう) (tennō) whose pronunciation is not ten'ō (ten + ō), but tennō. Compare Middle English neke name (whence English nickname), from rebracketing an ekename as a neke name; see also earlier Middle English ekename (“nickname”).
• Rentaikei (連体形) – A katsuyōkei (conjugated form) used for attributive modification of nominals. In modern Japanese it is practically identical to shūshikei, except that verbs are typically not inflected for politeness; in old Japanese these forms differed. The copula だ (da)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY still inflects for rentaikei, becoming な (na)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY when used attributively (by extension this also affects all na-adjectives).

  This form was also used to nominalize verbs and adjectives in Classical and Old Japanese. Such usage is obsolete in the Modern Japanese, supplanted by explicit nominalizers like の (no)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY and こと (koto)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY; bare nominalization only remains in some set phrases, such as with 値(あたい)する (ataisuru, “to be worthy (of doing)”).

• Rentaishi (連体詞) – A form of adjective or verb which cannot be used predicatively, only attributively (directly modifying a nominal). Examples include 更(さら)なる (saranaru), こんな (konna)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY, and とんだ (tonda)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY.
• Ren'yōkei (連用形) – A katsuyōkei (conjugated form) used in a linking role (a kind of serial verb construction). This is the most productive stem form, taking on a variety of endings and auxiliaries, and can even occur independently in a sense similar to the て (-te)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY ending. This form is also used as a verbal noun, referring to any of the action, the agent, or the result of a verb.

  This form is believed to have been derived from the verb stem + Proto-Japonic *-i.

S

• Shinjitai (新字体), (literally, “new character forms”) – Japanese simplified characters. Opposite of kyūjitai. Used for all regulated kanji, meaning jinmeiyō kanji, including jōyō kanji.
• Shūshikei (終止形) – A katsuyōkei (conjugated form) used at the ends of clauses in predicate positions. This form is also variously known as plain form (基本形) or dictionary form (辞書形) – it is the form that verbs and adjectives are listed under in a dictionary. It was used also before modal extensions, final particles, and some conjunctional particles.

  Shūshikei had merged with rentaikei by about 1600, but the distinction is preserved in the Ryukyuan languages and the Hachijōjima dialects, and in standard Japanese only in the copula だ (da)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY.

T

• Tōon (唐音), also called sōon (宋音) or tōsōon (唐宋音) – the kanji pronunciation brought to Japan since the Kamakura period, with some as late as in the Qing dynasty. One of the on'yomi categories. Tōon is relatively rare and irregular, as they were introduced piecemeal from China, often along with very specialized terminology. Tōon's distinctive features include:
  • Chinese coda /ŋ/ is transcribed as nasal /N/, instead of close vowels (usually /u/).
  • Chinese entering tone codas -p, -t, -k are dropped completely.

U

• Uncommon kanji – English translation of hyōgaiji.

W

• Wasei eigo (和製英語) – Japanese-made pseudo-anglicisms: Japanese coinages which derive their roots from English, but which are otherwise not real English words, i.e. would not be used by English speakers. For example カッターナイフ (kattānaifu, “boxcutter”, literally “cutter knife”)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY, from English cutter + knife. Some wasei eigo are further re-imported into English, such as サラリーマン (sararīman, “salaryman”)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY.
• Wasei kango (和製漢語) – Japanese-made Chinese character words: Japanese coinages which derive their roots from Chinese, or are created from individual characters' on'yomi readings concatenated together. Such words are formed in Japan, do not originally exist in Chinese, and are not used by Chinese speakers (unless such words are re-borrowed back into Chinese). For example, 電話(でんわ) (denwa, “telephone”) is a Japanese coinage from the characters 電 (“electric”) + 話 (“talking”).

Y

• Yojijukugo (四字熟語) – a four-kanji compound word, often of Chinese origin; many yojijukugo express an idiom or proverb.
  • In its broad sense, this term encompasses virtually all lexemes that are written using four Chinese characters in a row, regardless of their usage or meaning.
  • In its narrow sense, it traditionally only refers to specific subsets, such as those expressing idiomatic meanings that cannot be inferred from the constituent kanji.
  • A term is more likely to be agreed to be a yojijukugo if it has seen long-standing use, as many originally borrowed from Chinese have.

See Category:Japanese yojijukugo.

• Yomi (読み) – a reading (pronunciation) of a kanji (kanji)Category:Japanese links with redundant alt parameters#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARYCategory:Japanese terms with non-redundant manual transliterations#JAPANESE%20GLOSSARY.
• Yutōyomi (湯桶読み) – pronunciation of a two-kanji compound, with the first kanji kun'yomi and the second on'yomi.

References