|
In 1997, about 45% of Japanese words were derived from Chinese and about 13% were derived from English. Nunihongo [< New Nihongo.] is the attempt to answer what Japanese might look like if half of its vocabulary were derived from English.
Right now I'm wrestling with the sound changes the language has undergone. The lexicon is being re-shaped each time I tweak the sound change rules. Here's the draft lexicon (4MB tab-delimited text file).
To-do list:
 Remove multiple forms of the same English lemmaAdd semantic change (e.g., mansion was borrowed into Japanese but means "condominium")
Develop system of affixes from profusion of borrowings (e.g., -nasu from E. -ness)
Coin unique compounds from new affixes and English words (akin to current J. terms salaryman, one-pattern and leftover, "ball hit over left fielder's head")
Develop grammatical sketch (-zu may have become an emphatic plural, for instance, based on English -s)
Translate Babel Text
Contact me if you have ideas about the phonological rules for borrowing into Japanese or have other ideas about Nunihongo.
|
