No  English  Spoken  Here:  The  Prohibition  on  English  in  Japan  1940-­‐45  

In  Japan,  between  1940  and  1945,  English  was  officially  declared  a  tekiseigo  敵性語 ‘combatant  language’  or  tekikokugo  敵国語 ‘language  of  an  enemy  nation’  

The  English  language  was  effectively  removed  from  public  life  

This  was  in  stark  contrast  to,  for  example,  the  US  where,  during  this  time,  the  study  of  Japanese  was  actively  promoted  

While,  historically,  there  is  no  shortage  of  examples  of  official  prohibition  on  languages  or  dialects  spoken  within  the  boundaries  of  a  state  (e.g.  Kurdish  in  Turkey),  official  prohibitions  on  foreign  languages  are  somewhat  rarer  

 

Oddly,  given  the  huge  prestige  attached  to  English  education  in  Japan  today,  both  in  the  academic  and  non-­‐academic  spheres,  very  little  research  has  been  published  on  what  was,  sociolinguistically,  an  unusual  phenomenon  

In  the  first  half  of  this  presentation,  I  will  look  at  the  historical  background  to  tekiseigo  

Only  one  work  has  been  published  offering  a  thorough  treatment  of  the  subject:  Ōishi  (2007)  

While  written  in  Japanese  and  thus  largely  inaccessible  to  the  international  linguistic  community,  it  is  from  this  monograph  that  I  draw  much  of  the  historical  detail  to  be  introduced  here  

Ōishi,  however,  does  not  offer  a  linguistic  analysis  of  tekiseigo:  my  own  analysis  forms  the  second  half  of  this  presentation  

Although,  as  we  shall  see,  the  banning  of  English  did  not  begin  in  earnest  until  1940,  calls  had  been  made  to  ban  English  classes  in  Japanese  schools  as  far  back  as  1924.  This  had  been  in  response  to  the  US  Johnson-­‐Reed  Act  which  barred  naturalization  to  Japanese  and  other  ‘non-­‐white’  Asia-­‐Pacific  ethnic  groups  

In  1931,  Japan  invaded  Manchuria,  proclaimed  the  establishment  of  the  Manchukuo  state  in  1932,  and  then  left  the  League  of  Nations  in  1933  in  protest  at  its  declaration  that  Manchuria  remained  part  of  China  –  brought  about  the  League’s  adoption  of  the  Lytton  Report,  submitted  by  a  committee  chaired  by  a  British  earl  

In  1934,  Japan  terminated  the  Washington  Naval  Treaty,  which  limited  the  construction  of  battleships  and  aircraft  carriers  and  had  been  signed  with  the  US,  the  UK,  France  and  Italy  

After  the  beginning  of  the  Sino-­‐Japanese  War  in  1937,  materiel  and  other  support  for  China  was  offered  by,  among  others,  the  British  via  the  Burma  Road  

In  July  1940,  the  US  placed  an  embargo  on  the  export  of  aviation  fuel  and  scrap  metal  to  Japan,  while  in  September  1940  Japan  signed  the  Tripartite  Pact  with  Germany  and  Italy,  both  of  whom  were  already  at  war  with  the  UK  

All  this  –  and  more  –  helped  contribute  to  strong  anti-­‐British  and  anti-­‐American  feeling  in  Japan    

Prohibitions  on  English  originated  from  a  variety  of  different  sources  

These  can  be  grouped  into  six  broad  categories:  

 §  government  ministries  §  the  police,  both  at  a  national  and  local  level  §  sports  confederations  and  societies  §  the  state  broadcaster,  NHK  §  local  and  municipal  bodies  §  ‘self-­‐regulation’    

I’ll  examine  the  prohibitions  handed  down  by  these  various  groups  in  more  detail  in  a  moment  

First,  however,  it  should  be  noted  that  there  exists  no  record  of  tekiseigo-­‐related  prohibitions  ever  having  been  promulgated  directly  by  a  prime  minister  or  his  cabinet  

Strong  pressure  did,  of  course,  continuously  eminate  from  the  top  levels  of  government  and  at  least  one  linguistic  prohibition  was  handed  down  from  the  top,  in  Dec.  1941,  one  week  after  Pearl  Harbor  

This  was  on  the  Japanese  word  kyokutō  極東 ‘Far  East’,  banned  in  all  government  publications  and  pronouncements  and  in  ‘the  conversation  and  writing  of  the  general  public’,  for  being  a  calque  of  the  English  Far  East,  itself  a  ‘marginalizing,  UK-­‐centric  view  of  the  world’    

 

GOVERNMENT  MINISTRIES

Mar.  1940 内務省 Ministry  of  Home  Affairs

‘bizarre  stage  names’  banned,  including  those  containing  English,  for  ‘fostering  the  vice  of  foreigner  worship’

ディック・ミネ è        三根耕一

Apr.  1940 陸軍省 Ministry  of  War

English  entrance  examination  prohibited  at  Ministry-­‐run  schools

Sep.  1940 鉄道省 Ministry  of  Railways

English  signage  at  over  4000  stations  removed  or  altered

Station  Master  è DELETED  

 ロータリー è 円交路

Oct.  1940 文部省 Ministry  of  Education

school  and  research  institutes  containing  the  kanji  英  or  English  names  (usually  those  of  the  founder)  banned

フェリス和英女学校 è 横浜山手女学院  東洋英和女学校 è    東洋永和女学校

Nov.  1940 大蔵省 Ministry  of  Finance

cigarette  brands  with  English  names  banned カメリア è    椿

Jan.  1941 外務省 Foreign  Office

English  banned  at  press  conferences

Jan.  1943 内務省 Ministry  of  Home  Affairs

sales  of  records  and  performing  of  songs  with  English  titles  or  lyrics  prohibited

ホノルルの月 è BANNED  

POLICE

Oct.  1942 警視庁保安課 Tokyo  Met.  Police,  Public  Peace  Dept.

use  of  English  banned  during  table  tennis  matches

ファイブ・テン  (5-­‐10)      è BANNED  

Jan.  1943 銀座警察署 Ginza  Police  Station

bars  and  restaurants  with  ‘European-­‐like’  names  prohibited  

モナミ  (Mon  Ami)  è BANNED  

1943 横浜伊勢佐木署 Yokohama  Isezaki  Police  Station

cafés  with  English  names  banned

SPORTS  CONFEDERATIONS  &  SOCIETIES

Sep.  1940

東京学生米式蹴球連盟  Tokyo  Student  American  Football  Federation

changed  name  of  sport  from  ‘American  kick  ball’  to  ‘armour  ball’  in  order  to  ‘reflect  the  times’

米式蹴球 è      鎧球

autumn  1940 日本野球連盟Japanese  Baseball  Federation

English  team  names  banned イーグルズ　è　黒鷲

Mar.  1943

日本野球連盟Japanese  Baseball  Federation

English  baseball  terminology  banned

ファウル　è　だめ

Mar.  1943 大日本体育会  All  Japan  Physical  Education  Society

English  sports  names  banned ラグビー　è　闘球 ゴルフ　　è　打球

NHK

Apr.  1942 ‘As  the  leading  power  of  Greater  East  Asia,  we  are  fortunate  in  possessing  the  Japanese  language  –  there  is  no  reason  for  us  to  rely  on  English  forever…’  :      the  loanword  アナウンサー  ‘announcer’  banned  and  replaced  with  放送員

Apr.  1943

‘The  banishment  of  Anglo-­‐Saxon  loanwords  has  long  been  advocated  from  all  quarters  and  their  sight  and  sound  are  being  driven  from  the  land.  As  a  broadcaster  we  fight  together  with  the  people  and  recognize  that  any  loanword  remnants  are  a  huge  obstacle  in  boosting  public  morale  and  foiling  enemy  plots…’    the  loanword  ニュース  ‘news’  banned  and  replaced  with  報道

LOCAL  AND  MUNICIPAL  BODIES

1942 京都の植物園 Kyoto  Botanical  Gardens  

English  plant  names  banned コスモス è 秋桜

Mar.  1943 長野県南安曇郡大政翼賛会

Nagano  Prefecture  Minami  Azumi  County  Imperial  Rule  Assistance  Association  

name  of  highest  mountain  range  in  Japan  changed

日本アルプス è  中部山脈    ‘Central  Ranges’

Apr.  1943 京都市の乗合自動車 Kyoto  Metropolitan  Bus  Service

English  parking  instructions  banned

ストップ è 停車

‘SELF-­‐REGULATION’

Aug.  1942 欧文社 Ōbunsha  Publishers

Company  name  changed  to  旺文社.    The  kanji  欧  is  associated  with  Europe  and  the  West  in  general.  The  name  has  never  been  changed  back.

Nov.  1942 後楽園スタヂアム Kōrakuen  Stadium Changed  name  to    後楽園運動場  ‘Kōrakuen  Sports  Park’

1942 ヌリッヂストン Bridgestone  Tyres Changed  corporate  name  to    日本タイヤ  ‘Japan  Tyres’

Jan.  1943 ジャパンタイムズ Japan  Times  English-­‐language  newspaper

Changed  publication  title  to    ニッポンタイムズ  ‘Nippon  Times’

Before  starting  in  on  a  linguistic  analysis  of  tekiseigo,  a  few  comments  are  in  order  concerning  the  definition  of  English  

In  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  what  the  various  prohibitions  just  introduced  actually  sought  to  ban  was  not  English,  but  English  borrowings  

The  earliest  English  borrowing  into  Japanese  can  be  dated  to  as  far  back  as  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century  (Ishiwata  2001;  Irwin  in  press)  when  the  English  briefly  had    a  trading  post  at  Hirado  (modern  Nagasaki  Prefecture)  

English  did  not  begin  to  flood  into  Japanese  until  the  early  20th  century  (Irwin  2011:  53-­‐61  

 

Since  the  early  1960s,  English  loanwords  have  comprised  approximately  85%  of  the  loanword  stratum,  which  itself  makes  up  anything  from  8%  to  35%  by  type  count  of  the  Japanese  lexicon,  depending  on  survey  and  medium  (Irwin  2011:  14-­‐29)  

In  the  1940s,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  loanwords  were  written  in  katakana,  one  of  the  two  moraic  scripts  used  in  Japanese  (some  loanwords  were  written  in  kanji)  

 

However,  unlike  the  modern  convention,  katakana  was  also,  in  the  1940s,  employed  in  the  domains  which  employ  hiragana  today,  and  katakana  loanwords  were  frequently  underlined  (Umegaki  1963)    

This  conferred  on  them  a  high  level  of  saliency  on  a  page  of  printed  matter,  further  heightening  their  loan  status  in  the  mind  of  the  Japanese  reader  

This  made  loanwords  (though,  as  we  shall  see,  not  necessarily  English  loanwords)  easy  targets  for  bowdlerizers  and  censors,  as  easy  as  words  written  in  Roman  script,  i.e.  English  proper  

This,  coupled  with  linguistic  ignorance  and  propagandistic  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  prohibitors,  offers  a  compelling  explanation  for  the  blurring  of  English  with  English  loans  

Viewed  linguistically,  a  number  of  strategies  are  apparent  in  the  coining  of  tekiseigo  

Ignoring  cases  where  a  name,  word  or  phrase  was  simply  banned  outright  with  no  possibility  of  replacement,  these  can  be  grouped  into  three  broad  categories  plus  some  ‘miscellaneous  processes’.  These  categories  are  not  necessarily  mutually  exclusive  and  with  some  tekiseigo  more  than  one  strategy  is  encountered:  

l  calquing  l  orthographical  amendation  l  use  of  ‘propagandistic’  vocabulary  l  miscellaneous  processes  

Calquing

In  Japanese,  calquing  (loan  translation)  was  especially  common  in  the  late  19th  century  as  a  reaction  to  the  huge  influx  of  loanwords  beginning  to  flood  the  language:  e.g.  化学 kagaku  ‘chemistry’  or  写真機 shashinki  ‘camera’  

Examples  of  calques  are  now  rarely  encountered  in  modern  Japanese,  but  in  other  languages,  notably  Chinese,  it  is  the  dominant  strategy  and  preferred  over  direct  borrowing  

Calquing  is  a  strategy  frequently  encountered  in  tekiseigo    

Three  different  sub-­‐types  may  be  distinguished,  following  Betz’s  (1974)  categorization  for  Old  High  German  calques  from  Latin:  

• Lehnübersetzung  • Lehnschöpfung  • Lehnbedeutung  

Calquing  was  especially  prevelant  with  sports-­‐related  vocabulary,  as  many  of  the  examples  on  the  following  slides  attest

A  Lehnübersetzung  is  a  calque  were  the  morpheme(s)  of  the  loanword  are  directly  translated  

This  was  a  common  calquing  strategy:  

  pre-­‐prohibition  English  loan gloss

post-­‐prohibition  Japanese  

Lehnübersetzung  calque インフィールドフライ in-­‐field  fly  (baseball) 内野飛球 セーフ safe  (baseball) 安全 ニュース news  (NHK) 報道 チェリー Cherry  (cigarette  brand) 桜 ジャパンタイムズ Japan  Times  (newspaper) 日本タイムズ カメリア Camelia  (cigarette  brand) 椿 エンパイア自動車 Empire  Automobile  Corp. 帝国自動車

A  Lehnschöpfung  is  a  neologism  which  broadly  calques  the  meaning  of  the  loanword  

This  too  was  a  common  calquing  strategy:  

 pre-­‐prohibition  English  loan gloss

post-­‐prohibition  Japanese  

Lehnschöpfung  calque

gloss

キャディ caddy 球童 ball  .  child

ストライク strike  (baseball) 正球 correct  .  ball

エコノミスト Economist  (magazine) 経済毎日 economy  .  daily

プラットフォーム (JR  railway)  platform 乗車廊 boarding  .  corridor

コスモス cosmos  (flower) 秋桜 autumn  .  cherry

アナウンサー (NHK)  announcer 放送員 broadcast  .  staff

A  Lehnbedeutung  is  a  calque  whereby  an  existing  word  is  given  a  new  meaning  

The  rarest  of  the  calquing  strategies:  

pre-­‐prohibition  English  loan gloss post-­‐prohibition  Japanese  

Lehnbedeutung  calque first  attested

ノックアウト knockout  (boxing) 打倒 1832

ビジター visitors  (baseball) 迎戦組 1869

ホールインワン hole-­‐in-­‐one 鳳  (lit.  ‘phoenix’) 720

There  also  exist  cases  where  both  a  calque  (from  any  of  the  three  sub-­‐categories  just  outlined)  co-­‐existed  with  an  English  loanword  

In  this  case,  the  prohibition  sought  to  ban  the  loan  in  favour  of  the  pre-­‐existing  calque:  

pre-­‐prohibition  English  loan gloss pre-­‐existing  Japanese  

calque first  attested

スキー skiing 雪滑 1899

シクラメン cyclamen 篝火草 1884

ゴング gong  (in  boxing) 時鐘 1889

ゴルフ golf 打球 1905

With  many  of  the  examples  just  illustrated  –  as  well  as  many  to  come  –  it  should  be  noted  that  the  post-­‐prohibition  calque  is  a  Sino-­‐Japanese  lexeme,  written  in  kanji  

The  Sino-­‐Japanese  vocabulary  stratum  is  also  a  borrowed  stratum  –  though  of  far  greater  antiquity  than  the  loanword  –  and  sinography  (kanji)  is  a  borrowed  script  

Although  between  1940  and  1945,  China  too  was  an  enemy  nation,  the  authorities  apparently  saw  no  contradiction  in  this    

Orthographical  Amendations

Orthographical  amendations  fall  into  two  types:  

•  the  prohibition  of  undesirable  kanji  •  the  prohibition  of  Roman  letters  (rōmaji)  

While  the  prohibition  of  undesirable  kanji  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  the  banning  of  English,  it  was  both  a  closely  related  phenomenon  and  an  interesting  one.  There  were  2  recorded  cases:  

In  the  first  case,  the  publisher  欧文社  altered  its  name  to  旺文社,  the  first  kanji  meaning  ‘Europe’  (this  despite  Germany  and  Italy  being  allied  nations)  

The  publisher  has  never  changed  its  name  back  to  the  pre-­‐war  orthography  and  continues  to  use  旺文社  

In  the  second  case,  the  kanji  英  ‘England,  UK’  was  prohibited  in  the  names  of  schools  by  the  Education  Ministry    

東洋英和女学校  in  Tokyo  changed  its  name  to  東洋永和女学校    

永和  is  a  14th  century  imperial  reign  name    

山梨英和女学校  became  山梨栄和女学校  

Both  schools  have  since  reverted  to  their  pre-­‐war  英 kanji,  though  both  have  now  attained  university  status  

An  interesting  case  of  the  prohibition  of  the  Roman  alphabet  was  that  of  Tombow  (トンボ)  Pencils,  who  banned  HB,  H,  B,  4B  and  replaced  them  with  中庸,  １硬,１軟  and４軟    

The  company  still  exists  today  

Note  the  (now  trendy)  English  on  the  packaging  

Propagandistic  Vocabulary

Here,  an  English  loan  is  replaced  with  an  unrelated  Japanese  term  with  heavy  undertones  of  government  propaganda    

These  were  not  calques,  nor  did  orthography  play  a  role  

Examples  were  especially  prevalent  with  company  names  

Examples  include:  

Bridgestone  Tyre  Corp.  (ブリッヂストンタイヤ株式会社  as  it  then  was)  changed  its  name  to  Nippon  Tyre  Corp.  (日本タイヤ株式会社)    

Golden  Bat  (ゴールデンバット)  cigarettes  were  renamed  金鵄  (きんし  =  Golden  Kite).  The  Golden  Kite  had  mythical  imperial  associations  and  was  the  name  of  a  military  decoration  

           Golden  Bat  (1906  –)                                        Golden  Kite  (1940  –  1949)  

キング  and  モダン日本 magazines  were  rebranded  富士  and  新太陽,  respectively  

 

ライオン  baseball  team  became  朝日  

 

Singapore,  occupied  by  Japan  from  1942,  was  renamed  昭南島  

Miscellaneous  Processes

Here,  we  find  neither  a  calque  nor  any  use  of  propagandistic  vocabulary:  

The  choir  ユーフォニック・コーラス became  東京合唱団  

セネタース  baseball  team  became  翼  

日本アルプス became  中部山脈  

As  mentioned  earlier,  while  banning  foreign  languages  has  not  been  common  cross-­‐linguistically,  various  governments  have  sought  to  purge,  prohibit  or  reduce  loanwords,  while  non-­‐governmental  entities  have  urged  prescription  

In  many  such  cases,  loanword  replacements  have  been  demanded  or  suggested  

The  most  well-­‐known  case  at  the  more  ‘hardcore’  end  of  the  governmental  scale  is  probably  that  of  the  Académie  Française  and  its  drive  to  rid  French  of  English  loans  

Less  well-­‐known  internationally,  has  been  a  recent  ‘softcore’  attempt  by  the  Loanword  Committee  (外来語委員会)  here  in  Japan  between  2002  and  2004  (NINJAL  2006),  though  its  results  have  been  minimal  

To  date,  and  to  my  knowledge,  no  attempt  has  made  to  compare  loanword  replacement  strategies  either  cross-­‐linguistically  or  diachronically  

How  the  loanword  replacement  strategies  proposed  by  the  Japanese  Loanword  Commmittee  earlier  this  century  compare  with  the  strategies  just  outlined  in  this  presentation,  and  how  both  these  sets  of  strategies  compare  with  those  proposed  elsewhere  around  the  globe,  are  the  subjects  of  an  ongoing  CROSS-­‐LINGUISTIC  TYPOLOGY  OF  LOAN  REPLACEMENT  STRATEGIES  on  which  I  hope  to  report  in  greater  depth  at  a  future  date  

References Betz,  Werner.  1974.  Lehnwörter  und  Lehnprägungen  im  Vor-­‐  und  Frühdeutschen.  In  Friedrich  Maurer  &  Helmut  Rupp  (eds.),  Deutsche  Wortgeschichte,  Band  I.  Berlin:  Mouton  de  Gruyter,  pp.  33-­‐57.    Irwin,  Mark.  2011.  Loanwords  in  Japanese.  Amsterdam:  John  Benjamins.    Irwin,  Mark.  In  press.  The  Morphology  of  English  Loanwords.  In  Tarō  Kageyama  &  Hideki  Kishimoto  (eds.),  The  Handbook  of  the  Japanese  Lexicon  and  Word  Formation.  Berlin:  Mouton  de  Gruyter.    Ishiwata  Toshio.  2001.  Gairaigo  no  sōgōteki  kenkyū.  Tokyo:  Tōkyōdō.    NINJAL  (National  Institute  for  the  Japanese  Language  =  Kokuritsu  Kokugo  Kenkyūjo),  ed.  2006.  Gairaigo  iikae  tebiki.  Tokyo:  Gyōsei.    Ōishi,  Itsuo.  2007.  Eigo  o  kinshi  seyo.  Tokyo:  Goma  Shobō.    Umegaki,  Minoru.  1963.  Nihongairaigo  no  kenkyū.  Tokyo:  Kenkyūsha.  

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