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Yes, they are written with the Latin alphabet, but they are used in the Japanese language, so I am not sure. I mean, they have entries in Japanese dictionaries and a Japanese reading. What are they?

If they do count as Japanese words, does it mean the Latin alphabet is part of the Japanese language?

jarmanso7
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NeonGooRoo
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    This really doesn't have anything to do with this site. Is burrito an English word? Why or why not? Once you answer that, you've also answered this question. (In other words, essentialism is wrong.) – cmw Aug 13 '23 at 03:06
  • @cmv What has essentialism to do with the question? I frowned upon your assertion and thought you were being a little bit pedantic. I legitimately tried to look up the concept by myself and I am unable to understand how it relates to the point at issue, and why it is wrong. – jarmanso7 Aug 14 '23 at 00:32
  • @jarmanso7 This question pre-supposes that words can be "inherently" Japanese or not (that's essentialism). Japanese words are words that are used in Japanese. (You can follow this to its logical extremes as well.) They may have different origins outside Japanese, but being written in a different script doesn't really change the nature of the word. Moreover, you can't really see the script if you're just writing it out. You'll find samurai in the English dictionary, because, despite being derived from Japanese, it's used in English language works. – cmw Aug 14 '23 at 00:33
  • @cmv Also, "burrito" is still written entirely in alphabet characters like any other English word, whereas CD and DNA are not written neither with hiragana, katakana, or kanji, so I don't think the parallel is completely fair. – jarmanso7 Aug 14 '23 at 00:33
  • If Japanese wasn't a written language, would that change anything? – cmw Aug 14 '23 at 00:34
  • @cmw sure, it would be a very different language (for starters, much less rich than it is having a writing system). Thanks for the quick explanation on what essentialism is, much more to the point than the corresponding article in Wikipedia. – jarmanso7 Aug 14 '23 at 00:35
  • Written Japanese might be poorer for it, but that doesn't affect the spoken language, which is still very much Japanese. (And no worries: Wikipedia has far too many terrible articles to really recommend it anymore!) – cmw Aug 14 '23 at 00:38
  • @cmw I see your point, and yet still think the question is valuable. After all, 侍 is not an English word even though "samurai" is. Why? because 侍 is not used in English. – jarmanso7 Aug 14 '23 at 00:42
  • Are gaol and jail the same word? They mean the same thing, but they're written differently. Does that make one English and the other not English? What about judgment v. judgement? Are these the same words? How a word is spelled does not change whether a word exists in that language. – cmw Aug 14 '23 at 00:47
  • This question is also operaitng on the assumption that Japanese only uses kana and kanji, but you never justified that. Why would that language be so limited? If a language switches writing systems, is it a completely different language? Mongolian can be written in Cyrillic or traditional Mongolian script, representing the exact same spoken language. Does the difference in writing truly make it a different language? – cmw Aug 14 '23 at 00:49
  • @cmw I am not operating under the assumption you mention, in fact I upvoted the answer below and I subscribe it. I agree CD or DNA are Japanese words because they are used in Japanese. However, since kana and kanji are the prevalent writing systems in Japanese, and not the latin alphabet, I think OP's question is fair. – jarmanso7 Aug 14 '23 at 00:54
  • @jarmanso7 You overlapped with my edits a bit. I meant to say this question, not you. Sorry for writing to hastily on that. And I never said it wasn't a fair question, just not a question about Japanese. It's a question about what it means to be a word in a language where writing systems are concerned. – cmw Aug 14 '23 at 00:55
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – cmw Aug 14 '23 at 01:24
  • "does it mean the Latin alphabet is part of the Japanese language?" - if you count é and ö in the English alphabet repertoire, then maybe yes... – broccoli forest Aug 14 '23 at 02:31

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There are well-established initialisms and acronyms of Japanese origin. For example:

  • TPO = time, place, occasion
  • NHK = 日本放送協会
  • JR = Japan Railways
  • JIS [ジス] = Japan Industrial Standard
  • JAL [ジャル] = Japan Airlines
  • JK = 女子高生
  • BL = boys love

If these aren't Japanese, what are they? I guess the Latin alphabets, or more precisely, the 26 modern English alphabets, are already part of the Japanese language nowadays.

As for CD and DNA, they are 外来語 (loanwords) and, as such, are Japanese words, just as samurai, kanji, manga, and tsunami are English words.

Other terms common in Japan that use alphabets:

  • S = 昭和, H = 平成, R = 令和
  • R18 = Restricted 18 (18+ ONLY)
  • X線 = X-ray
  • A級戦犯, B級グルメ
  • W = double
  • O脚, S字カーブ, V字回復, Y字バランス
  • GW = Golden Week
  • 3K = きつい、きたない、危険
  • G = ゴキブリ
Detaroit
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