Japanese-English digraphia in action
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Stuart Luppescu saw this restaurant sign in Saitama, Fukaya:
It's a yakiniku 焼肉 ("grilled meat") place called "Yoshi's Restaurant". What's especially intriguing about it is that instead of the genitive suffix -no 〜の, they substituted the English genitive case marker -'s. I find it all the more charming that they've transcribed the sound of the English case marker as -zu in rōmaji, which they have highlighted in red, as they did the -'s in English!
We've also encountered the same predilection for -'s in written Mandarin. See:
- "Impromptu biscriptalism on a Starbucks cup" (9/8/17)
- "Biscriptalism on Starbucks cups, part 2" (9/16/17)
Notes from Nathan Hopson:
I can't think of an example of this kind of restaurant / shop ownership attribution by use of the possessive in Japan.
Most likely scenario is probably just 義, or in this case 焼肉 義 (with the space implied graphically by use of a different font, color, size, etc.)
Instead of Macy's and Kohl's, etc., we have Mitsukoshi and Itō Yōkadō, etc.
We have McDonald's and Denny's of course, but the closest homegrown analogues are probably Mos Burger (incidentally, MOS is an acronym for Mountain, Ocean, Sky rather than a reference to creative ingredients) and Gusto.
No possessive anywhere.
Selected readings
- "Japanese survey on forgetting how to write kanji" (9/24/12)
- "'Up' in Japanese and Chinese" (3/12/19)
- "The actuality of emerging digraphia" (3/10/19) — with links to dozens of earlier posts on this subject
jhh said,
February 19, 2020 @ 4:37 pm
McDonald's in Japan ignores the 's in the Japanese name. It's "Makudonarudo," not "Makudonarudozu" ;)
Richard said,
February 19, 2020 @ 6:36 pm
This reminds me of a bubble tea place in Canberra (Aus) which uses のin place of 的 in otherwise entirely Chinese (simplified) text (see the menu link below), which is a peculiar affectation but perhaps fitting for something from Taiwan with its mixed imperial heritages.
https://www.superemoji.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/drink-menu.pdf
Michèle Sharik Pituley said,
February 19, 2020 @ 8:18 pm
Then there's the restaurant chain "Yoshinoya", which has locations in Northern & Southern California.
unekdoud said,
February 20, 2020 @ 9:07 am
I get what you mean about Yoshinoya, but just to avoid one particular source of confusion I'll point out that the "no" in its name is not the possessive の of Japanese.
Michèle Sharik Pituley said,
February 20, 2020 @ 1:30 pm
@unekdoud: So it's not "Yoshi's store"? I can't find the restaurant name in kana, only kanji, and I can't read kanji.
Dara Connolly said,
February 20, 2020 @ 5:21 pm
Today I learned that the name of the family restaurant ガスト is a Japanese representation of "gusto". I had no idea – I was always a little puzzled by it and thought it might be something to do with the German word "Gast".
Dara Connolly said,
February 20, 2020 @ 5:22 pm
Also, shouldn't it be "Fukaya, Saitama"?
Krogerfoot said,
February 20, 2020 @ 5:47 pm
If Nathan Hopson's comment means that restaurants and shops in Japan typically don't take their name from the name of the proprietor + possessive marker, that's certainly the case, although we do have お母さんの台所 okaasan-no-daidokoro "Mom's Kitchen."
Josh R said,
February 20, 2020 @ 7:06 pm
"So it's not "Yoshi's store"? I can't find the restaurant name in kana, only kanji, and I can't read kanji."
The "no" of Yoshinoya is part of a name: Yoshino. So it's not "Yoshi's store", but rather "Yoshino Store".
A quick check of Japanese Wikipedia says that the shop was named for the area in Osaka where the founder was born.
Akito said,
February 20, 2020 @ 8:23 pm
It is unusual for the bound form kan (as in 旅館 ryokan and 館長 kanchou) to be used as a free form. The usual free from reading of 館 is yakata.
Akito said,
February 20, 2020 @ 8:25 pm
from –> form. Sorry.
John Chew said,
February 21, 2020 @ 5:01 pm
I think the proprietor is trying to be funny, by using the kunyomi for "yoshi", a katakana-kotoba for "zu", and an onyomi for "kan" to make one compound.
Chris Button said,
February 22, 2020 @ 9:02 am
@ Akito
I was wondering about the same thing. I'm assuming you're a native speaker, so I'm glad you brought it up.
@ John Chew
I think it would be great if someone (perhaps the person who took the photo) could ask the owner his full intent behind the name.
B.Ma said,
February 23, 2020 @ 11:58 pm
@Richard:
In Cantonese の is pronounced 之. I would suggest that if that cafe in Canberra is run by mainly Mandarin speakers, that の in the name would also be pronounced zhi1.
Akito said,
February 24, 2020 @ 4:17 am
Not an important question for me, a retired language teacher, but it may be for linguists. Are the on'yomi and kun'yomi of a kanji in Japanese (such as kan and yakata above) to be thought of as two different (but synonymous) morphemes, or are they allomorphs of the same morpheme?
JoshR said,
February 24, 2020 @ 8:47 pm
Akito said, "Not an important question for me, a retired language teacher, but it may be for linguists. Are the on'yomi and kun'yomi of a kanji in Japanese (such as kan and yakata above) to be thought of as two different (but synonymous) morphemes, or are they allomorphs of the same morpheme?"
As near as I can tell, in Japanese linguistic circles it would generally be the former. Yomi essentially refers to an orthographical question, whether the character in question is pronounced using a native Japanese pronunciation or an imported Chinese one. So for example, "ame", "ama" and "same" are all allomorphs for "rain", where as the on-yomi "u" would be considered a separate synonymous morpheme. The distinction is necessary because some imported words (or perhaps I should say "orthographical conventions") have morphemes unrelated to their constituent characters.
For example, 梅雨 – rainy season.
In the original Chinese, and in the Japanese on-yomi pronunciation of "bai'u", this has two morphemes: bai (plum) + u (rain).
In the Japanese kun-yomi pronunciation, it has one morpheme: tsuyu.
Or do go the other way, and bring it back to yakata/kan, yakata and -kan- can be considered synonyms, and are often written with the same character, 館. But yakata can also be written 屋形, suggesting that the Japanese word is actually made up of two morphemes – ya, meaning house/building, and kata, meaning something like "shape/structure".
Akito said,
February 24, 2020 @ 10:32 pm
JoshR – Thanks for your clear explanation, with which I concur. I guess a parallel would be native English words vs. words of Greek, Latin, or French origin with the same or similar meanings.