Talk:簿記

Etymology of 簿記
--

Thank you for the lead in mentioning Nishikawa's work. Direct links for convenience:


 * Library card at Keio University site:
 * https://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/detail.php?koara_id=AN00234698-19640630-04046134


 * Direct link to the PDF:
 * https://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/download.php/AN00234698-19640630-04046134.pdf?file_id=1473

On the page 43 that you indicated, Nishikawa does indeed argue against a direct derivation from 🇨🇬, describing that this cannot be directly from →  →  →. I agree with this assessment -- the radical sound shifts and abbreviations required for this derivation make it extremely unlikely.

However, phono-semantic matching (PSM) does not necessarily mean that kind of direct borrowing. As we can see for instance in the Arabic examples at w:Phono-semantic_matching, this process may consist of finding native morphemes that fit together to produce a term that has a similar meaning and sometimes only a vague resemblance to the sounds of the source term.

Nishikawa also mentions that the first appearance in Japanese is in the 1869 text. This is late enough that a derivation from, or influence from, English is certainly a possibility. Considering also that a number of monolingual Japanese dictionaries include at least a mention of 🇨🇬 (Shinmeikai, Sekai Dai Hyakka Jiten, Yuhikaku Keizai Jiten), I believe we have grounds for including this in the etymology. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig 23:44, 1 February 2021 (UTC)