What are gairaigo?
Q: What are gairaigo?
A: Gairaigo are loanwords in the Japanese language from languages other than Old or Middle Chinese.
Q: What does the word "gairaigo" mean?
A: The word "gairaigo" literally means "loan word."
Q: Which languages are the most common sources for gairaigo?
A: Most gairaigo come from European languages, particularly English since the post-WWII era, but Modern Chinese and Modern Korean are also popular sources.
Q: In what script are most gairaigo written nowadays?
A: Most gairaigo nowadays are written in katakana.
Q: What is ateji?
A: Ateji are kanji used only to show a word's pronunciation and not its meaning.
Q: Can you give an example of a gairaigo that can be written in ateji?
A: Yes, America or Amerika in Japanese can be written as 亜米利加 in ateji.
Q: What are the three main sources of Japanese words?
A: The three main sources of Japanese words are gairaigo (loanwords from other languages), kango (Chinese loanwords), and yamato kotoba (native Japanese words).
