Japalish is an old name for what can be considered a new variety of English. It is the English for Japanese. It’s for Japanese to learn English easily, and to have courage of talking English. Today, we have many chances to talk foreigners. Japanese should speak English more actively.
According to Watanabe (1983, p.65), one of the first men to suggest the idea of Japalish was A. Mori(1847~1889). The characteristics of Japalish are
1. thinking of English as a Japanese language.
2. using English as an international language. English is not only American, British, and other mother tongue language.
3. putting less emphasis on English grammar, plural words, spelling and so on.
We can compare English and Japalish in the following respects:
1. pronunciation
2. accent
3. rhythm
4. speed
5. idiomatic and reduced expressions
1. [pronunciation]
In Japanese, we don’t have pronunciation of [th] So, If Japanese say ‘think’, it will heard ‘sink’. ‘sit’ will be heard ‘nuts’. But, even we pronounce it the wrong way, other English speakers can understand according to the situation. Or, we can use other expression.
2. [accent]
English and Japanese have different accents. For example,‘desert’ [dēzet] means sabaku, [dize:t] means misuteru. But, like pronunciation, this can also be understood in the context.
3. [rhythm]
About rhythm, we don’t need to be careful. It doesn’t matter that Japanese can speak English in their own rhythm.
4. [speed]
In English, the normal speed of speech is a hundred words a minute, but in Japalish, it takes one minute and thirty seconds to speak the same number of words.
5. [idiomatic and reduced expressions]
In English, ‘is not ‘can be ‘isn’t’, ‘going to’ can say ‘gonna’ But Japalish doesn’t have such expressions.
Japalish is English with Japanese pronunciation and Japanese characteristic culture, Japanese writing style. It just like Japanese spoken by foreigners.
