Japanese in Depth Vol.4

Table of Contents

Japanese in Depth vol. 4

31. Language Evolution

32. Sentence-particles

33. Misuse or evolution?

34. The Impossibility of Translation

35. Fabric of the Japanese mindset

36. Man and nature – a Japanese view

37. Language and the expression of psychological states

38. Mindsets in Language

39. Clause-particles

40. All about the particle ‘to’

Japanese in Depth vol. 4

Copyright 2006 by International Communication Institute

Smashwords Edition

31. Language Evolution

By Shigekatsu Yamauchi

Founder of ICI (the International Communication Institute)

www.stepupnihongo.com

www.icijapan.com

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I long thought that the Japanese adjective nayamashii referred to a restless state of mind－when one is stimulated sexually, among other things. These days, however, it is seldom used for this meaning, but rather used when a situation is too difficult to permit clear-cut distinctions between right and wrong.

The word obviously stems from the verb nayamu meaning agonize, suffer and worry. Originally it referred to conditions of those types, either physical or physiological. In this older usage, nayamashii was not the type of word likely to come up in open discussion or debate. These days it very often has nothing to do with physiology: nayamashii can be quite conveniently used to describe political, social or economic situations where the speaker has a hard time distinguishing things one way or the other and thinks things too thorny for simple explanations or solutions.

Although we can never identify the particular individual who started using the word incorrectly, this meaning seems to have become widely accepted. Even if my old Kojien dictionary, the Japanese language bible, does not provide this meaning yet, it has established itself, and I’m quite sure it is here to stay.

Slang, on the other hand, is more transient. Rather than extending or modifying meanings of existing words, as in the nayamashii example, slang seeks novelty. Young people are good at creating new words; here are two popular adjectives in use among contemporary Japanese youngsters, created afresh by God-knows-whom: yabai and uzai.

Yabai is basically an adjective meaning chancy or risky, but it is frequently used almost as an interjection. It performs a warning or alerting function regarding imminent risk, like ‘uh-oh’ in English. Many years ago it occurred to me that Japanese lacked a good equivalent to ‘uh-oh.’ I must admit that the youthful deployment of the word yabai seems to fit pretty well.

Uzai is presumably a contraction of urusai, an adjective meaning annoyingly noisy, which functions as an equivalent to Shut up! in English. Uzai, however, is used by youngsters to show frustration, annoyance or dislike.