Eli5: Why does it seem like Japanese often translates from English phonetically (camera = カメラ ‘kamera’) while Chinese seems to translate conceptually (照相机 ‘zhao xiang ji’ is literally “photo taking machine”)
In: Other
I think it’s also a mentality of what is best to translate something.
If you go the other way, you will notice 餃子 is translated to Dumplings (or even earlier, Chinese Perogis/Chinese Ravioli) but Japanese use “Gyoza”. The flavor 鮮甜 was translated to “Savory”, “Salty”, but Japanese decide to translate simply as “Unami”
It is only recently, with the rise in Chinese power, do you see translation by tonal. 小籠包 (lit small steamer buns) now commonly known as Xiao Long Bao, but traditionally translated as “soup dumplings”
In a way, to use tonal, is to indicate that they believe the others will just accept the origin as it is, instead of adapting. So basically, Japan was “adapting to the west”.
The only case where I think the new translation is better is Boba tea, formerly “bubble tea”. It comes from 波霸 – a Cantonese term for “busty girl”
Latest Answers