Kotobagari
The Japanese expression Kotobagari (言葉 狩 り"word hunt" ) describes the effort to avoid words that are considered politically incorrect in the Japanese language . So avoid most Japanese media concepts like rai (癩" leper ") mekura (盲, "Blind"), tsunbo (聾"Tauber"), oshi (唖"deaf and dumb"), Kichigai (気違いor気狂い"Crazy") , tosatsujō (屠殺 場 " slaughterhouse ") or hakuchi (白痴 "idiot").
As a case of the so-called euphemism treadmill , the name change for the caretaker in Japanese schools can be seen: kozukai-san (小 使 い さ ん "person who fulfills a chore "). One saw a devaluation and replaced the term by yōmuin (用 務 員 "specialist"). In the meantime, yōmuin is considered pejorative , so the term kōmuin (校務 員 "school member") or kanrisagyōin (管理 作業 員 "school warden") was used.
Other unacceptable words include hyakushō (百姓) for peasant , which has been replaced by nōka (農家). After the Second World War, the word Shina (支那) for China (written in Kanji ) was viewed as derogatory and it was widely replaced by the Japanese Chūgoku (中国) or by Shina (written in Katakana ) (シ ナ). In the 1960s one saw a connection of the Sino-Japanese word Mōko (Mong) for " Mongol " with the designation for a "stupid, ignorant or immature" person (see " mongoloid "), so that the ethnic group now in Katakana Mongoru (モ ン ゴ ル) is called.
Kotobagari and Ideology
Kotobagari has resulted in confusing terminology in various linguistic areas.
The Japanese broadcaster NHK broadcasts a Korean course in which the language is not referred to by one of its two technically correct names, but as "Hanguru" (Japanese pronunciation of the term " Hangeul ") in order to avoid political incorrectness. This is a result of diverging North and South Korean sovereignty claims. Only the name of one's own country may be used to denote the Korean language. North Korea wanted to enforce the designation "Chōsen language" (), because after the division it now claims the term chōsen for the old, once undivided Korea. South Korea insisted on a language name in connection with its own country name (Kankoku) , so "Kankoku language" (韓国 語). As a compromise, “Hanguru” was used, and Korean is now referred to as “the language of this program” or “this language”. This led to the emergence of the neologism "Hanguru language" (ハ ン グ ル 語). In relation to the Korean language, however, this is terminologically incorrect, since Hangeul itself is a writing system that can theoretically be used to write a variety of languages, and not a language.
Even the Japanese gastronomic terminology avoids North / South Korean allusions and creates neologisms like yakiniku for a Korean meat dish.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bulag, Uradyn E. "Contesting the Words that Wound: Ethnicity and the Politics of Sentiment in China." Inner Asia 10.1 (2008): 87-111.
- ↑ NHK: ハ ン グ ル の テ レ ビ 番 組 ・ ラ ジ オ 番 組 | NHK ゴ ガ ク ( yes )
literature
- Nanett Gottlieb, Linguistic stereotyping and minority groups in Japan. Oxon: Routledge. 2006. ISBN 0415338034 .