Spanish Words of Japanese Origin

Questions This Article Answers

Has Japanese influenced Spanish?

Are there Japanese words used in Spanish?

Examples of Japanese loanwords in Spanish?

Adaptations, Calques, and Loanwords

• A linguistic adaptación(adaptation) is a word or phrase taken from another language but adapted to the target language for phonologic, lexical, or syntactic reasons. For example, breeze is an adaptation of the Spanish word brisa.

• A calco(calque) is a word or phrase translated literally into another language. For example, roadrunner is a calque of the Spanish word correcaminos (correr: to run + caminos: roads).

• A préstamo lingüístico(loanword) is a word or phrase taken from another language and used in its original form. For example, patio is a loanword taken from Spanish.

Get to know more loanwords and regional varieties of Spanish with these articles:

• Spanish Words of African Origin

• Spanish Words of Arabic Origin

• Spanish Words of Basque Origin

• Spanish Words of Catalan Origin

• Spanish Words of French Origin

• Spanish Words of Galician Origin

• Spanish Words of Germanic Origin

• Spanish Words of Italian Origin

• Spanish Words of Nahuatl Origin

• Spanish Words of Portuguese Origin

• Spanish Words of Quechua Origin

• Spanish Words of Romani Origin

• Spanish Words of Slavic Origin

• Loanwords in Spanish

• Ladino and Judeo-Spanish

• Pronunciation of English Loanwords in Spanish

• Caribbean Spanish