Quite frankly, I didn’t think I would write this course, but in the end, I found so much to say that there was enough to do a full course on the subject. And here we are !
This course is only about a few small details, some aspects of the Japanese language that you might come across and I want to explain all of that to you. I think this is important.
This is a very short course, so read quietly.
I present below a kanji that you know well and which can also be used as a suffix of proper names. I’m talking about the cat’s kanji here : 猫. And this kanji can be used as a suffix for the names of breeds of cats which are therefore proper names.
So why is the cat’s kanji, 猫, used quite often (but not always) as a suffix for cat breed names ? The reason is that the names of cat breeds were most often created from the name of the place of origin of the breed or from a physiological trait.
For example, you have the Bengal, which originated from a cross between a domestic cat and a Bengal leopard cat, hence the name. In Japanese, the name of the country « Bengal » is pronounced and is written ベンガル but the name of the cat « Bengal » is pronounced and is written exactly the same. So how to differentiate between the two ? We will simply add the kanji 猫 as a suffix, which gives us ベンガル猫. So, we know very clearly that I am talking about the Bengal, the cat breed and not the country.
Another example, the Persian cat which is pronounced and written ペルシャ. But it’s also the name of a country, Persia, so to avoid confusion we can write it in Japanese ペルシャ猫. The same goes for the Siamese cat, originally from Thailand, which can be written タイ猫 to avoid any confusion or シャム. Or the Siberian cat which is best to write シベリア猫.
Another example, you have a breed of cat that is called the snowshoe in reference to a very particular physical characteristic : it has all white legs while the rest of its body is a darker color. In Japanese, its name is written スノーシュー, and if you have fun typing this name in your browser’s search bar, you are likely to come across a result that does not correspond at all to this breed of cat, because スノーシュー is basically an English word for snowshoes. Even during a conversation in Japanese, it can be confusing if you refer to « snowshoe » without specifying that it is a breed of cat (unless the context of the sentence is sufficient so your interlocutor can understand what you are talking about). So, once again, we’ll simply add the kanji 猫 as a suffix, which gives us スノーシュー猫.
A final example for the road, you have the Savannah cat which is written サバンナ. But the Japanese also write the word « savanna » this same way, so to make your interlocutor understand that you are talking about the savannah cat, you would rather say サバンナ猫.
Of course, for cat breed names that leave no room for ambiguity, the use of the kanji 猫 as a suffix will not be necessary. For example, if you type in your search engine the Russian blue, in katakana (russian blue en anglais), en katakana ロシアンブルー, you will come across results concerning this breed of cats because there is no room for confusion with another word.
All that being said, I give you below a small list of some cat breeds that you know well if you have learned your vocabulary course on the subject properly :
ペルシャ(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Persian
ベンガル(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Bengal
スフィンクス(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Sphynx
シンガプーラ(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Singapura
コラット(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Korat
ブルミラ(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Burmilla
マンクス(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Manx
サバンナ(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Savannah
シベリア(猫) .
ペルシャ(ねこ) . the Siberian
Remember that the use of the kanji 猫 as a suffix of cat breed names is not mandatory except to avoid ambiguity depending on the context of the sentence. However, even if there is no ambiguity you can still put it. You can also replace the kanji 猫 with 子猫 / 小猫 / 仔猫 if you want to clarify that you are talking about a kitten. Yes, if you didn’t know, there are up to three different kanji to represent the concept of « little » when placed as a prefix to an animal name. Now I hope this has all been understood.
Note also that you can put the particle の between the name of the breed and 猫 / 子猫 / 小猫 / 仔猫.
Now the question most of you are asking yourself is : « is it possible to do the same with other names of animal species like dogs, fish, cattle… ? ».
It’s quite a complex question but I don’t think so. If I have analyzed with you all these examples above with the names of the different species of cats, it is because they are only written in katakana. And since the name of many species of cats has been chosen based on their place of origin or physiological peculiarities, the Japanese add the cat’s kanji suffix to avoid confusion when necessary. Even the Japanese bobtail, which is nevertheless a species of feline native to Japan, does not have a kanji name. The Japanese themselves call it ジャパニーズボブテイル.
If it was a question of talking about a canine species, on the other hand, the use of the kanji 犬 would not be really necessary because the names of the different species of dog generally leave no room for confusion whatever the context of the sentence. However, if you want to clarify that you are talking about a puppy, you will use as a suffix 子犬 / 小犬 / 仔犬.
Note also that you can put the particle の between the name of the breed and 犬 / 子犬 / 小犬 / 仔犬.
Finally, don’t forget that the different species of Shiba already have names in kanji including, of course, the kanji of the dog. Please feel free to review the « Dog Breeds » vocabulary course we saw in the first season.
To quickly tell you, regarding fish, you will have some vocabulary lessons on the subject for season three. And I can already tell you that the names of fish in Japanese are written mainly in kanji with typical Japanese pronunciations. You are now warned.
As said above, if you want to designate very precisely a species of cats, you can write the kanji 猫 in suffix or particle の + 猫.
However, the particle の can be removed. We saw that this was the case above and with proper nouns in a previous lesson, and I explained very precisely how it all works.
I explained to you that in Japanese the use of suffixes on proper nouns instead of the particle の had become common in order to facilitate pronunciation and to make the spoken and written language more fluid. So, to say for example the castle of Takayama, we do not usually say 高山の城 . たかやまのしろ even though this formulation is grammatically correct. We say 高山城 . たかやまジョウ.
Today we will see that the particle の can also be (possibly) occulted, even in common names. And I’m talking here about common names, not proper names as we have seen previously. For example, in a very banal sentence such as the can of bean, the bottle of milk or the can of cola.
For example, if we mean the bottle of milk, we can say :
ミルクボトル . the bottle of milk / the milk bottle
牛乳の瓶 .
ギュウニュウのビン . the bottle of milk / the milk bottle
牛乳瓶 .
ギュウニュウビン . the bottle of milk / the milk bottle
Three ways of saying the same thing, all of which are commonly used in Japanese. In the third example, you will notice that the particle の has disappeared. It should be understood that, in the nominal group the milk bottle, strictly speaking, there is not a case of possession. Of course, 牛乳の瓶 is grammatically correct and 牛乳瓶 is only the simplified version.
To help you understand better, I will draw a parallel with the English language. In English, hundreds of words have been created in a very simple way by reversing the order of the words, as if to express possession but without writing the mark of possession. This is very often the case for the most common words, especially when it comes to the names of articles, titles of newspapers, books, movies... Or even very common everyday objects like the toothpaste tube, the bottle of milk, the glasses box... This is not an established rule but quite simply a usage that has become democratized, as long as the absence of the mark of possession does not prevent us from understanding what is written.
In Japanese, we find the same idea with the absence of the particle の for the same reasons. This makes it possible to simplify hundreds of words of everyday life. The influence of the English language probably has something to do with it, not forgetting the SMS generation and social networks.
Now I would like to take you to practice a small exercise in order to help you develop your mastery and understanding of the Japanese language.
I will give you four kanji with their pure and Sino-Japanese pronunciations. I will explain to you what these four kanji are, in which categories of words we find them most often. And from there, I want you to learn how to deduce what words you can create well out of these.
箱 . はこ, -ばこ. The box
瓶 . ビン. The bottle (whether it is glass, plastic…)
碗 . ワン. The bowl
缶 . カン. The can, the tin, the jar, the bottle (in which grain or beans are stored)
Since this course is intended for English speakers, I would like to present a rather interesting parallel between the construction of certain words in English versus Japanese.
Many words in English follow a similar etymological construction. You take a word, for example « pencils », and you put the word on it « box », which gives us :
Pencils + box = Pencils box
The pencils box
I give you another example similar to the first. Let’s take the words « paint », « tube » and « box », which gives us :
Paint + tube + box = Paint tube box
The paint tube box
A third example, and it’s still the same. Let’s take the words « soup » and « bowl » :
Soup + bowl = Soup bowl
The bowl of soup / The soup bowl
A final example with the words « coffee » and « can », which gives us :
Coffee + can = Coffee can
The coffee can
In Japanese, we have seen that the word « coffee », so in katakana コーヒー. Knowing how words are constructed in Japanese, knowing that the arrangement of words is very similar to what is done in English, what do you think this will be like ?
I hope you think about it ? In English we have :
Coffee + can = Coffee can
So in Japanese we’ll have :
コーヒー + 缶 . カン
= コーヒー缶 . コーヒーカン
Let’s create another word together. For example, we want to create the word « the bottle of orange juice ». Let’s start from English, so we have :
Orange + juice + bottle = Orange juice bottle
So, in Japanese we will have :
オレンジ + ジュース + 瓶 . ビン
= オレンジジュース瓶 . オレンジジュースビン
Note : you can also write コーヒーの缶 to say « the can of coffee ». And you can also write オレンジジュースの瓶 to say « the bottle of orange juice ». Personally, I prefer to go to the simplest and hide the particle の.
Now that all of this has been explained, I hope you can create lots of new words based on the vocabulary you have learned so far. Let’s create another word with the kanji 缶 . カン. Since this kanji alone means « the can » or « the tin can », what words could we create, always following the same pattern ?
Let’s take the word 小豆 . あずき which stands for « red beans » from the course titled « The world’s vegetables » and let’s combine it with 缶 . カン. In Japanese, this gives us :
小豆 . あずき + 缶 . カン
= 小豆缶 . あずきカン . The (tin) can of red beans
And the particle の is of course optional.
Let’s create another word with the kanji 碗 . ワン. Since this kanji alone means « the bowl », what words could we create, always following the same pattern ?
Let’s take the word 汁 . しる which stands for « the soup » from the course titled « Basic foods » and let’s combine it with 碗 . ワン. In Japanese, this gives us :
汁 . しる + 碗 . ワン
= 汁碗 . しるワン . The soup bowl (the object)
汁碗 is a word in itself and is very common in the Japanese language, the particle の is never placed between the two kanji.
Come on I’ll give you a new katakana word this time : カートン. From the English « carton ». Imagine we mean « the carton of milk », how do we say this word ? There are three possible words in Japanese :
ミルクカートン . the milk carton
牛乳のカートン .
ギュウニュウのカートン . the milk carton
牛乳カートン .
ギュウニュウカートン . the milk carton
We will stop there.
Even today you have discovered a few new words. I gave you a little method to create on your own lots of new words to enrich your sentences. Like what, creating new words in Japanese is absolutely not difficult once you understand how it all works. Feel free to revise your vocabulary courses to refresh your memory.
Of course, you have exercises to do. I’ll give you some theme and version as usual. You will find in the sentences to be translated new vocabulary to guess for yourself. So be careful. There will also be a lot of... cats !
See you very soon !
Introduction