During the fourth part, we saw a little the lexicon of the family and the children. I therefore suggest that you start this series of five vocabulary lessons by expanding your knowledge on the subject a little more.
Thirty vocabulary words. Let’s start:
赤子 .
あかご
. the baby
幼子 .
おさなご
. the baby, the little child
幼者 .
ヨウシャ
. the baby
乳児 .
ニュウジ
. the infant, the baby
ベビー
. the baby
小児 .
ショウニ
. the child (of primary school age)
小人 .
ショウニン
. the child (of primary school age)
少年 .
ショウネン
. the boy, the young boy, the teenager
少女 .
ショウジョ
. the girl, the young girl, the teenager
産声 .
うぶごえ
. the first cry of a baby at birth
産湯 .
うぶゆ
. the baby’s first bath
産着 .
うぶぎ
. the baby clothes
ベビー店 .
ベビーテン
. the baby store, the nursery store
ベビー屋 .
ベビーや
. the baby store, the nursery store
ベビーストア
. the baby store, the nursery store
ベビーショップ
. the baby store, the nursery store
ベビーキャリア
. the baby carrier
ベビーウォーカー
. the baby walker
ベビーサークル
. the baby circle
ベビーゲート
. the baby gate
ベビーフェンス
. the baby fence
ベビーカー
. the baby car
哺乳瓶 .
ホニュウビン
. the baby bottle
ベビーボトル
. the baby bottle
ボトルウォーマー
. the bottle warmer
ベビーシッター
. the baby-sitter
子守 / 子守り .
こもり
. the baby-sitter
子守歌 / 子守り歌 / 子守唄 / 子守り唄 .
こもりうた
. the lullaby
お子さん .
おこさん
. the child (when we talk about the child of another person who is not part of our family)
お子様 .
おこさま
. the child (when we talk about the child of another person who is not part of our family with a lot of respect)
The first thing you may notice is that there are a lot of words in Japanese for babies. For starters, they are red especially when they come into the world hence the word 赤子 . あかご. They are also childish and immature, which is quite normal, hence the words 幼子 . おさなご and 幼者 . ヨウシャ. They suckle the mother’s breast hence the word 乳児 . ニュウジ. And of course, we have the English word in katakana.
Then we have the words 小児 . ショウニ and 小人 . ショウニン denoting children of elementary school age, that is, children who are at least six years of age or older and have not yet entered adolescence. I would like to point out that these two words can designate both boys and girls.
You already know the words 少年 . ショウネン and 少女 . ショウジョ so I won’t dwell on that. No comment to make on the other words either, and even those taken from English, they are easy enough to understand.
We have already seen the word お子さん . おこさん in the course titled "the family of others". We use it to talk about the child of another person who is not in our family. Finally, the word お子様 . おこさま is used similarly but is much more respectful with the suffix 様 . さま. For example, you have nannies who are responsible for looking after children from wealthy families or aristrocrats and who are asked to use the suffix 様 . さま to clearly mark the social status of the child.
Here ends the course. Thank you all for reading it and I’ll see you soon for the next one.
Introduction