以下のニューヨークタイムズの記事を読む機会を得ました。
New York Times Aug. 26, 2000, Saturday
Think Tank;Enough With the Kompyuta! Let's
Makuru!
なかなか面白い論文です。英語が段階的にどう日本語化するのか、順序だてて説明しているのは傑出してます。
1)最初に、日本人の英語の発音が、いかに非英語的になるか、体系的に示したものは英語の発音の勉強になります。エルが発音できないこと、語尾が母音(vowel)となること、これだけ例がおおいと、感じがつかめます。There
is no "l" sound in Japanese so
that all foreign words with "l"
are pronounced with an "r." "Flight"
becomes "fright," or more exactly,
"furaito." A further pronunciation
problem is that Japanese syllables all end
in vowel sounds, except when there is an
"n." "Book" becomes "bukku,"
"size" becomes "saizu,"
"pencil" becomes "penshiru."
2)The next step is essential for Japanese:
abbreviation.それから、英語本来の意味が日本でかわるマンションの例、英語を取り入れて、簡略化する、日本語の本質的な簡略化プロセスの例、ネガ、レジ、ハンディ。
3)更に進んで、ホームメイド英語「"dokutu-sutoppu"
("doctor-stop"), an example of
what I would consider brilliant new English.」。ドクター・ストップが和製英語とは知りませんでした。
4)更に進んで、「The penultimate stage comes
when people are no longer aware that the
word is not native. "Pan" ("bread")
is from 16th- or 17th-century Portuguese.
But it is so deeply rooted in Japanese that we
now find the baffling compound "bureddo-pan"
("bread-pan").」。葡萄パン、これはもう日本語そのものです。
5)最終的に、「In the final stage, the foreign
word is completely assimilated to the grammatical
form of Japanese.」サボる。"saboru."
"makuru" (to eat at McDonald's),
"saburu" (to eat while riding a
subway car -- from "sabuuei,"
"subway"). まくるう、さぶるう、これは当方は初耳でした。
結論として、「the process of English-absorption
that is going on before our eyes in Japan
today is awesomely inventive.」と日本人の英語吸収能力を創作の才ありとHerbert
Passin先生は評価しています。日本語英語を肯定的にとらえる姿勢はなかなかのものと思いました。
New York Times Aug. 26, 2000, Saturday
Think Tank;Enough With the Kompyuta! Let's
Makuru!
Although English is becoming the dominant
language around the world, few outside Japan
may be aware of how extensively it has transformed
Japanese. Herbert Passin, professor emeritus
of sociology at Columbia University, reported
on this upheaval in "Japonica: How
to Read the Japanese Language if You Know
the English Source Code," which appeared
in the spring-summer issue of Correspondence:
An International Review of Culture and Society.
Excerpts follow.
(以下略)