Dojoese
Karate
Terminology
A collection of thoughts and some facts
By
Verne Gilbert
Every now and then when they discover I study karate, some
folks have asked me if I speak Japanese.
My answer is, no I speak Dojoese, a combination of English and Romaji karate
terminology.
Although the words and phrases of karate terminology are
Japanese in origin, the mere use of such does not constitute a working
knowledge of the Japanese language. I
don’t speak Japanese nor do I know much about the structure of the language. I have over the years through research
discovered that the terminology I use and the way I use it contains misuse in
spelling, translation and pronunciation.
In many cases there are other Japanese words that, in my opinion, better
describe the techniques and actions I perform.
My Dojoese ignores the many rules of Japanese grammar and sentence
structure, which can change the meaning and use of words and phrases. I suspect that I am not the only
non-Japanese speaking karate instructor who realizes this deficiency. As some have done, I could solve this
problem by simply not using Japanese terminology. Doing that however would compromise my belief that the study of the
culture, customs and language of the parent country is of great benefit, if for
no other reason than to expand ones awareness of life and add educational
dimension to the study of karate. I
also believe we need to use that which we use correctly. So, I recognize a deficiency but do not
want to abandon my beliefs, nor do I wish to rewrite Dojoese. I merely wish to understand it better. I guess the only recourse is to educate
myself. How do I do that?
I could spend a few years and a lot of
money to learn the Japanese language.
This solution would certainly be of educational benefit to me personally
and to a degree my students. However in
my every day life I would have little or no use for it. In my karate life I speak Dojoese, so a full
fledge knowledge of Japanese although beneficial is not necessary.
There are many rules of grammar and
sentence structure of Japanese that are not essential to my use of the
terminology. However, I should learn to
implement some of the basic rules of the language. More importantly, I can and should do a little research on the
proper pronunciation and translation of the words and phrases I use.
Japanese like any language is comprised
of the oral and the written. Below is a
brief description of both. There are
many books and even more website articles which discuss this topic in far
greater detail. I have found “surfing
the web” to be very educational.
Oral
Japanese:
Japan has many regional
dialects, (hogen). The dialects have
different accents and some may be unintelligible to speakers from
other parts of the country. However, there are few communication
problems among the people of different dialects as almost everyone understands
standard Japanese, (hyoujungo), a dialect spoken in Tokyo. In most cases, accentuation doesn’t make a
difference in the meaning of the words.
Some dialects in remote areas
such as Okinawa are arguably languages separate from Japanese. In Okinawa there are at least five different
dialects / languages, the most common of which is Uchinaguchi, most likely the language
of the Okinawa karate founding fathers.
Even though it is in decline Uchinaguchi is still spoken in Okinawa
today. The mother of one of our young
dojo members is Japanese, born and raised in Okinawa. In various conversations with her she indicated to me that she
speaks Japanese and English, her mother speaks Japanese and Uchinaguchi and her
grandmother speaks only Uchinaguchi and does not understand Japanese.
Written Japanese:
Japanese is written in a mixture of kanji and the two
kana, hiragana and katakana.
·
Kanji, ideographs from Chinese characters. Used
for writing the basic language elements such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
and
Japanese place and person names.
·
Hiragana, a set of symbols (syllabary) that approximate syllables
that make up words, and phrases. Used for writing grammatical
elements, conjunctions, particles, etc. The
inflecting parts of verbs, etc. (as they change for tense, level of formality,
etc.)
are written in hiragana.
·
Katakana, another syllabary used for foreign borrowings
and other sounds. Mainly used for the tens of thousands of words
imported into Japanese from other languages.
The above three scripts are important to Japanese speaking folks in the written transmission of their language but are not of much value to those of us who are only familiar with a alphabet based language such as Dojoese. If the reader has an interest in learning about these scripts, there are many very good articles on the internet.
My research for this project has confirmed a long time belief that
to be able to fully understand Japanese and the terms I use, at least a cursory
knowledge of kanji would be useful. Kanji are whole
words / ideas, it is about meaning.
Even though the words or phrases are pronounced the same one little dot
or slash can change the meaning of a Kanji character. This makes me wonder if there might be any translation errors
involved in our terminology. Perhaps someday I will be able to
research this subject in depth.
As it pertains to Dojoese, probably the most useful system of writing Japanese is Romaji.
· Romaji, the standard way of transliterating Japanese into the Latin alphabet.
The following defininations of
the three systems of Romaji are from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
·
Hepburn generally follows English phonology and so gives the best
indication to anglophones of how a word is pronounced in Japanese.
·
It was standardized as American National Standard System for the Romanization
of Japanese (Modified Hepburn), but this status was abolished on October
6, 1994. Hepburn is the most common romanization system in use today,
especially in the English-speaking world. Japanese school children now learn
Hepburn when they first begin to learn the English alphabet in junior high
school.
· Nihon-shiki is the oldest and least
used of the three main systems. It follows Japanese phonology and the syllabary
order very strictly and is hence one of the few systems of romanization that allows
lossless mapping to and from kana. It has also been known as ISO 3602 Strict
form.
· Kunrei-shiki is a slightly modified
version of Nihon-shiki, which eliminates several relics of the differences
between the kana syllabary and modern pronunciation. For example, if the words kana and tsukai are combined, in kana
the result is written with a dakuten (voicing sign) atop to indicate that the tsu is now voiced.
Kunrei-shiki (and Hepburn) ignore the underlying kana and represent the sounds
as they are pronounced (kanazukai), but Nihon-shiki retains the
difference and romanizes the word as kanadukai. Kunrei-shiki has been
standardized by the Japanese Government and ISO (ISO 3602). Kunrei-shiki used
to be taught to all Japanese elementary school students.
Hepburn is the system that the karate terminology of Dojoese is
written and therefore is of special interest to me. There are a lot of rules of grammar and sentence structure
involved with using Romaji, all of which are interesting and very good to know
but not that important to my use of Dojoese.
My primary concern is spelling, pronunciation and word use, (meaning).
Japanese Word Use and Pronunciation
There
are several very good web sites that explain all aspects of reading and writing
the Japanese language. I particulary enjoyed the following and would recommend
anyone interested in the Japanese language to study this site.
Japanese for the Western Brain
http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japanese/index.html
Vowels
‘A’ as in
shot, hot, and dot -
the long A sound sounds like the English short O vowel. Open wide and say
“Ahhhhh.”
‘I’ as in
sheet, meet, greet, and speak. - the I sound is always exactly like the long E in English. There
is no short I sound in Japanese that rhymes with hit or bit.
‘U’ as in book
and foot. - Be careful
with the U. It does not sound like the words hoot, shoot, or loot. The U in
Japanese sounds like book. The long U of English does not exist in Japanese.
‘E’ as in
head, jet, sped, and met. - The E always sounds like the short E of English. Be careful not
to pronounce it like a Spanish E that rhymes with hate, bait, or slate.
‘O’ - There is no Japanese O equivalent in English. The English long O
is a dipthong. That means that the O in Boat is actually pronounced like a long
O and then a long U. Booouuuut is what Japanese hear you say whenever you say
boat, coat, loan, tone, toe, joe, or schmoe. The English long O is a two
syllable, two toned vowel. In Japanese, be careful to only say the ‘O’ portion.
Do not slide into the oo noise that follows the O in English words.
Long
Vowels
Japanese has a feature that English does not have. Japanese has long vowels. In
English, a long vowel sound is a change in pronunciation such as from bot to
boat - from a short O to a long O. In Japanese, vowels are always pronounced
using only the five sounds given above, but there is a catch. The vowels are
either one syllable or two syllable, meaning that you’ll have to extend them
longer by pronouncing them twice.
A good example of
this is the kata Jiin. In order to say this properly, you give the JI syllable
one beat, and you give the I syllable one beat, and you give the last N one
beat, meaning that the word is not like gene, but rather like gee-ee-nn.
It gets worse.
The Japanese hear the long E, as in bet, as a sound as in bait. So, when they
romanize words with the long E, they generally spell the sound EI - just to confuse
us, yes.
I’ve written the
long vowels below like this: aa, ii, uu, ei, oh, respectively.
Combo
Vowels
But wait, there’s more. The Japanese also want you to be able to make other
sounds, so they have a way of placing one of the five vowels subscripted
following a different one so that you can make more sounds. For example, to say
the word stain, I would write SU TA I N using for katakana characters to
represent four syllables from Japanese. However, the Japanese also allow me to
write it SU TAi N, so that it sounds more like English. They generally only do
this with foreign words, though, so for karate terminology, you are off the
hook for that rule, anyway.
Japanese
Consonants
The Japanese cannot pronounce many of our consonants. For example, the Japanese
cannot say an R. However, through some strange event of which I do not wish to
have inside information, the Japanese write their L/D noise with an R. So, my
name is pronounced in Japanese as lobu ledomondo. However, because Japanese
have a formalized roman character set, they exclude the L and use the R in
their English writing of Japanese words. For crying out loud!
Yes, there are
more rules you need to know! Did you really believe it was just Spanish
sounding foreign speak?
The L noise that the
Japanese write with an R sounds like a soft, half D noise when it is used in
any place other than the beginning of the word. So, it ends up sounding like a
single Spanish roll of an R. Not like rrrrrrrrodrrrrrriguez. Not like
Enrrrrrrique as in Spanish, either. Rather, it sounds like only one spanish
flip of an R noise. Maybe that’s why they use the R and say it sounds like
Spanish?
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Japanese
Alphabet |
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|
a |
i |
e |
o |
u |
|
ka |
ki |
ke |
ko |
ku |
|
sa |
shi |
se |
so |
su |
|
ta |
chi |
te |
to |
tsu |
|
na |
ni |
ne |
no |
nu |
|
ha |
hi |
he |
ho |
fu |
|
ma |
mi |
me |
mo |
mu |
|
ya |
|
|
yo |
yu |
|
ra |
ri |
re |
ro |
ru |
|
wa |
|
|
wo |
|
|
n |
|
|
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There are other rules
involving consonants changing sound when not at the beginning of a word. The
word for punch, tsuki, becomes zuki anytime it is placed at the end of a word.
Tsuki. Gyaku-zuki. The TSU noise cannot survive being after another syllable.
There are exceptions to this rule for some words. You don’t need to know them
all.
N is the only
stand-alone consonant. Did I remember to mention that all Japanese syllables
are either the five vowels, a consonant followed by a vowel, or N? The Japanese
sounds look like this:
See anything in
there that bothers you? The si must be pronounced just like the word she. The
ti must be pronounced like chi as in cheese. If you learn words one at a time
as terms, this list of possible sounds will not bother you so much. It should
explain a lot about why Japanese pronounce English the way that they do. They
have a lot of sounds missing that we make in English, and it’s hard to learn to
make a noise you never made before.
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Japanese do not
generally make imitative sound effects with their mouths. Instead of making an
explosion noise with their mouths, they always use the equivalent word like
“Boom!” For example, you might try to sound like a dog barking when you are
telling a story about a barking dog. You’ll make a barking sound, not say “Woof
woof woof.” You might write the word that way, but you won’t actually say that.
Japanese actually say that. To them, dogs say “Wan wan wan.” And, that’s
exactly how they imitate them.
Counting
to Ten
Japanese have two
numbering systems: Japanese and Chinese. The Japanese system is native to the
islands of Japan. The Chinese system is taken from Chinese and modified for
their use. Don’t think that the Chinese use those pronunciations, because they
don’t. The Japanese just took those sounds from the Chinese. Thus, they are
called onyomi, or “sound readings.”
Generally, you
count to ten using the Chinese system. However, when you are counting things
like pencils, books, cats, and fingers, you generally use the Japanese system
plus a counter. For example, pencils are cylindrical, so they are counted using
the word hon. Punches are cylinders too, so they also take that counter.
That’s why we say ippon kumite. It is one cylinder sparring. There are a
lot of different counters, and you have to learn each one for each different
kind of thing. Chopsticks use zen, books use satsu, and sheets of
paper use mae. There are at least 100 different counting words. Using
Japanese counters is sort of like counting animals in English - a flock, a
herd, a gaggle, a pack.
The number 9 has
two different pronunciations. The Japanese tend to prefer one or the other
depending on the situation. Frankly, when to use one or the other is quite
confusing. Stick to ku. The Japanese also sometimes drop into the
Japanese numbers when they are superstitious about using the Chinese numbers.
For example, the kanji for death is pronounced shi. Therefore, the number four
is often said as yon.
Japanese words
almost always end in a vowel sound of a, i, u, e, or o. In the alphabet given
above there is only one letter that does not end in a vowel. The Japanese do
not generally pronounce the ending vowels in their speech very often, though.
The word arimasu sounds to most people as “adimas.” However, if you
listen very, very carefully, you’ll hear that final vowel noise in there ever
so slightly for just a moment.
Tsu(ku) =
Punch
Tsu(ku) is a
verb. It is pronounced more like ts-ku without the first u sound. In a noun
form it is tsuki. It literally means to thrust, pierce, stab, or prick. The
word punch is our loose translation of the idea, not the word. So, when you
punch in karate, you tsuku. The polite form, which is more appropriate in a
classroom, is tsukimasu (pron. ts - kee - mahs). When the word appears
following another word, it changes form sometimes to Zuku. So, the following
words are available:
Keru =
Kick
Keru is a verb meaning to kick. A kick, a noun, is keri. When keri follows another
word in a compound, sometimes it changes sound to a “g” making it like the
following combinations:
Ukeru =
Receive
Ukeru is generally translated as “block” in karate dojo. In fact, it means to
receive something. You could receive a present, a good grade, or a letter. It
also means “to get” as in “I got the joke.” Uke is the noun form, and therefore
means “reception.” Uke do not block. These techniques enable you to receive the
opponent’s attack. If you think of blocking as receiving, it becomes much
easier.
Tatsu =
stand
Tatsu is the verb for “stand.” When used in its polite form, it is tachimasu.
When used as a noun, it is tachi. After another character, the pronunciation
generally changes to dachi with a ‘d’.
That was interesting and makes me think that just maybe I can
learn to properly pronounce the words I use.
In Japanese there are only 46 sounds, (syllables), where as English has
over 100. This should be easy,
right? Not to worry! As mentioned below, I have a secrete weapon.
Because of the history of karate, another of my long time beliefs
is that the languages of Chinese and Uchinaguci might have some influence in
the terminology of Dojoese. I know that
the names of some of the kata are based on Chinese and that Kanji is based on the
Chinese writing system. There may be a
link there someplace. As for
Uchinaguchi, I have not yet been able to find any evidence other than possibly
some kata names. Perhaps this is a
project for the next generation to undertake.
Attached to this article is a list of karate words and terms,
which were complied from roughly twenty separate list. The goal was to create a list of terminology
that might be used in any karate dojo.
Below are the standards of vetting used to compile the list.
·
A word
had to be researched via the various English / Japanese dictionaries. If the spelling or the translation could not
be confirmed the word was not used.
Exception; misused words which because of longevity of use have become
accepted as accurate.
·
With
the exception of some Chuan Fa and Judo terminology any word or phrase that
maybe exclusively specific to a martial art other than karate, was not used.
·
Because
of the infinite possibilities, combining words to describe, (other than basic),
techniques was avoided.
Also attached is my secrete weapon, an audio CD of the attached
list of terminology. At our dojo we are
most fortunate to have Mr. Taishi Nokami a Japanese exchange student. Taishi agreed to assist with this project by
making an audio recording, in Japanese, of the entire list of words. This I believe will be of more value than
all of the books and websites that were used to gather the information. I would like to extent a very special arigato gozaimashita to Taishi.
We will never be able to repay you for this very special gift. Please know that we at the dojo will
cherish it forever as a reminder of the time we spent together.
To date the development of my Dojoese knowledge has been evolutionary in nature and no doubt will continue to be so. As large as it may seem, I am sure that the attached terminology list is not yet complete and may still contain some errors. This project will be a work in progress for many years to come.
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References: |
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Books: |
Web Sites: The
number of sites referenced are to numerous to list all. Below are some very interesting
sites. |
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Karate-Do Kyohan by Gichin Funakoshi Karate Jutsu by Gichin Funakoshi Shotokan Karate, A precise History by Harry Cook Goju Karate Do Kyohan by Gogen Yamaguchi Okinawan Goju-Ryu II by Seikichi Toguchi What is Karate by Masutatsu Oyama This is Karate by Masutatsu Oyama |
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Japanese_language http://www.d.umn.edu/~jbelote/japanwriting.html
http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japanese/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogen http://www.useasternwado.com/TerminologyPronunciation.htm http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2005/10/12/japanese-karate-terms/ http://pages.prodigy.net/david_wolfe/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_languages http://www.baikamon.org/vocabulary.htm http://www.masutatsuoyama.com/terminology.htm http://www.japanesetranslator.co.uk/your-name-in-japanese/ http://www.virtualginza.com/okinawa.htm?jlang.htm http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html |