Appendix:Japanese glossary

A glossary of Japanese linguistic terms used in the body of this dictionary. see also Appendix:Glossary for terms not specific to Japanese. This page can be linked to using or.

A

 * Atamadakagata – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which the first mora of the word is of high pitch followed by a drop to low pitch.
 * Ateji – kanji representing a sound that is not from the original phoneme associated with the kanji's used reading. Example:  (on’yomi is associated with Sinitic phoneme, but the word is non-Sinitic),  (originally unrelated kanji ). In some ateji, kanji is chosen to make it a phono-semantic matching, e.g..

B

 * Bound form – a unit of language that can only be used as part of a word, not as a word on its own; in Japanese, these manifest in a special way in certain words which have both free and bound forms:  can be used freely as, or in forms compounds (e.g. ) as . Other examples of free-bound pairs include 雨 (あめ/あま), 稲 (いね/いな), 酒 (さけ/さか), 木 (き/こ).

C

 * Commonly used kanji – English translation of Jōyō kanji.

D

 * Daiyōji – a kanji in the jōyō kanji or tōyō kanji list that is used to replace another kanji not in the list. The two kanji are usually homophonic or semi-homophonic.

G

 * Gikun has two meanings:
 * Synonym of jukujikun.
 * The use of a kanji for its meaning, i.e. kun'yomi. Sometimes used when a new kanji with a narrower meaning replaces (possibly several) previously-used kanji in a term, e.g. 蔑 in 蔑ろ.
 * Go-on – the kanji pronunciation before the arrival of Kan’on. One of the on’yomi categories. Goon is the earliest of all borrowed pronunciations, mostly used in Buddhist terms.
 * Grade n kanji – one of the grade divisions of the kyōiku kanji (educational kanji) ranging from 1 through 6. "Grade S" refers to kanji taught in secondary school.

H

 * Heibangata – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which there is a generally high pitch throughout the word and after which attached particles also take a high pitch.
 * Hyōgai kanji or hyōgaiji  – kanji outside the jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji lists; most (but not all) such kanji are written in kyūjitai (traditional characters).

J

 * Jinmeiyō kanji – kanji used for names per the official list, supplement to jōyō kanji. May mean either just the jinmeiyō kanji, or jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji, meaning “all kanji on official lists”. Opposite of hyōgaiji.
 * Jōyō kanji – commonly used kanji, per official list.
 * Jūbakoyomi – pronunciation of a two-kanji compound, with the first kanji on’yomi and the second kun’yomi.
 * Jukujikun – an inseparable reading of a multi-kanji term, e.g. . Also known as.

K

 * Kanji – Chinese characters that are used in the Japanese writing system.
 * Kan’on – the kanji pronunciation brought to Japan during the . One of the on’yomi categories. Kan’on resembles the contemporary  Chinese dialect, and is more systematic compared to other borrowings.
 * Kan’yōon – the kanji pronunciation derived from a corrupted or changed form of other regular on’yomi. One of the on’yomi categories.
 * Kateikei – A katsuyōkei used for conditional and subjunctive forms, using the -ba ending.
 * Termed Izenkei in the Classical and Old Japanese, where this form was also used as the main verb in an exclamatory sentence.
 * Katsuyōkei – In traditional Japanese grammar, the 6 "stem forms", mizenkei, ren’yōkei, shūshikei, rentaikei, kateikei and meireikei, from which all the others may be derived in a similar fashion to the  used for Latin and other languages.
 * Originated in the Edo period, the katsuyōkei system more closely reflects the vowels of the Classical Japanese verbs than the modern ones. It fails to address some euphonic sound shift in Modern Japanese such as the -a/-o split in mizenkei. Moreover, this system has been criticized because the six forms are not equivalent, with one being solely a combinatory stem, three solely word forms, and two being both. It also fails to capture some inflected forms. However, five of the forms are basic inflected verb forms, and the system also describes almost all extended forms consistently.
 * Kun’yomi – a reading of a kanji that is not derived from the kanji's original pronunciation borrowed from Chinese.
 * Most kun'yomi are of native Japonic origin, with a few exceptions:
 * Borrowed from Chinese, but attributed to a different kanji, e.g. from Chinese-derived.
 * Borrowed from languages other than Chinese, e.g..
 * Most of this kind of kun'yomi are dated, and are now replaced by pure katakana, e.g..
 * Kun’yomi is limited to single-kanji readings. For similar readings of inseparable multi-kanji terms, see jukujikun.
 * Kokkun — a kanji kun reading with a meaning different from its original Chinese meaning.
 * Kokuji – kanji made specifically for the Japanese language.  Some of these have been adopted into other languages that use Chinese characters.
 * Kyōiku kanji – Elementary school kanji; literally, “educational kanji”. The elementary level of the jōyō kanji, divided into 6 grades.
 * Kyūjitai – Japanese traditional characters; literally “old character forms”. This term often refers to the pre-reform appearance of characters in the jōyō list. Opposite to shinjitai. Visually resemble closely to Chinese traditional characters and virtually identical to Korean hanja, with occasional differences.

M

 * Meireikei – A katsuyōkei expressing the imperative mood.
 * Mizenkei – A katsuyōkei used for plain negative (of verbs), causative and passive constructions. The most common use of this form is with the -nai auxiliary that turns verbs into their negative form. The -ō version is used for volitional expression and formed by a euphonic change.
 * This form never occurs in isolation but only as a stem to which several particles and auxiliaries are attached. This stem originated from resegmentation of an initial *a of several suffixes (auxiliary verbs) as part of the stem.

N

 * Nakadakagata – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which one mora somewhere in the middle of the word carries high pitch, followed by a drop to low pitch.
 * Nanori – special kanji readings used exclusively in Japanese names. The nanori reading of a kanji is often a pronunciation assumed from its synonym or near-synonym.

O

 * Odakagata ) – one of four modern Japanese Tokyo pitch accent patterns, in which the pitch is generally high throughout the word, but the pitch drops at the end, causing attached particles to take low pitch.
 * On’yomi – a reading of a kanji that is derived from the kanji's original pronunciation borrowed from Chinese, or rarely as in kan’yōon, misunderstood as being so. On’yomi readings are generally categorized into goon, kan’on, tōon and kan’yōon.
 * On'yomi is a "closed" category, i.e, it does not acquire new members. New borrowings of Chinese characters' pronunciations after the 20th century are generally not considered to be on'yomi.
 * Okurigana – kana suffixes following kanji stems. For example, in, る is okurigana.

R

 * Rendaku – voicing of an unvoiced initial consonant in a non-initial component of a word. Usually seen when joining words or morphemes together and in reduplication.
 * Renjō – sandhi, a kind of sound fusion between morphemes, such as  whose pronunciation is not ten’ō (ten + ō), but tennō. Compare 🇨🇬 (whence 🇨🇬), from reinterpreting an ekename as a nekename; see also earlier 🇨🇬.
 * Rentaikei – A katsuyōkei prefixed to nominals and is used to define or classify the noun, similar to a relative clause in English. In modern Japanese it is practically identical to shūshikei, except that verbs are generally not inflected for politeness; in old Japanese these forms differed. Further, na-nominals behave differently in shūshikei and rentaikei positions.
 * This form was also used independently as verbal nouns in the Classical and Old Japanese. Such usage is obsolete in the Modern Japanese, only remaining in some set phrases.
 * Ren’yōkei – A katsuyōkei used in a linking role (a kind of ). This is the most productive stem form, taking on a variety of endings and auxiliaries, and can even occur independently in a sense similar to the -te ending. This form is also used as verbal nouns, which can mean any of the action, the agent, or the result of a verb.
 * This form is believed to have been derived from the verb stem +.

S

 * Shinjitai – Japanese simplified characters; literally “new character forms”. Opposite to kyūjitai. Used for all regulated kanji, meaning jinmeiyō kanji, including jōyō kanji.
 * Shūshikei – A katsuyōkei used at the ends of clauses in predicate positions. This form is also variously known as plain form  or dictionary form  – it is the form that verbs are listed under in a dictionary. It was used also before modal extensions, final particles, and some conjunctional particles.
 * Shūshikei merged with rentaikei by about 1600, but the distinction is preserved in the Ryukyuan languages and the Hachijōjima dialects.

T

 * Tōon, also called sōon or tōsōon  – the kanji pronunciation brought to Japan since the , with some as late as in the . One of the on’yomi categories. Tōon is relatively rare and irregular, as they were introduced piecemeal from China, often along with very specialized terminology. Tōon's distinctive features include:
 * Chinese coda /ŋ/ is transcribed as nasal /N/, instead of close vowels (usually /u/).
 * Chinese entering tone codas -p, -t, -k are dropped completely.

U

 * Uncommon kanji – English translation of Hyōgaiji.

W

 * Wasei eigo – Japanese-made pseudo-anglicisms: Japanese coinages which derive their roots from English, but which are otherwise not real English words, for example, from English  + . Some wasei eigo are further re-imported into English, such as (perhaps) . (See also )
 * Wasei kango – Japanese-made Chinese words: Japanese coinages which derive their roots from Chinese, or are created from individual characters' on'yomi readings concatenated together. Such words are formed in Japan, do not originally exist in Chinese, and are not used by Chinese speakers (unless such words are re-borrowed back into Chinese).

Y

 * Yoji jukugo – a four-kanji compound word, often of Chinese origin; many yojijukugo express an idiom or proverb.
 * In its broad sense, this term encompasses virtually all lexemes that are written using four Chinese characters in a row, regardless of their usage or meaning.
 * In its narrow sense, it traditionally only refers to specific subsets, such as those expressing idiomatic meanings that cannot be inferred from the constituent kanji.
 * A term is more likely to be agreed to be a yojijukugo if it has seen long-standing use, as many originally borrowed from Chinese have.
 * Yomi – a kanji reading (pronunciation).
 * Yutōyomi – pronunciation of a two-kanji compound, with the first kanji kun’yomi and the second on’yomi.