I hate them! wahwhawah… especially in shounen manga… Also i think you will hate them too if you are going to take the 1kyuu exam because apparently the goi part has a separate section on them, well at least that was what I was told.

But I think using ateji is an old practice and not really used for modern word acquisitions though. Yeah you have things like tempura but the new words like apo, eco and all those new buzzwords came from somewhere right and is written in katakana.?

Oh one good ateji is お転婆さん. It comes from the Dutch ontembaar, which according to online dictionaries means “indomitable, never-say-die, unsubduable“. It is used for calling tomboys.

So for katori all onyomi as well? hehehe

Also one cool application of ateji is make your name into Japanese. Its hard though for something like Stephen. But names like Ivan can become 愛絆.

@Shance: The better example for that alienation, instead of Tagalized American words, would be words that look authentically local and sariling atin, when in fact it isn’t. Like katol, among others.

As for what you said about Japanese dialects, I think you’re giving them too much credit. Even Japanese have a hard time understanding dialects in other parts of their country (proof). Just so happens that much of what we see in films and in print are the standard Japanese dialects, not those in the more rural areas. And that despite the different dialects, their written form is universal. Same with Chinese.

@maAkusutipen: All onyoumi for cha, so definitely Chinese.

As awesome as it seems that we have zOMG a plethora of dialects, it’s a double edged sword when you think of it as a sign of our lack of unity as a country. People in the south end up feeling the minority too.

As for loan words in the Japanese language, the sense of consciousness might be lost when they use ateji for the borrowed words. I can only wonder if the next generation would know that words like 倶楽部 and 般若波羅蜜多 are simply ‘kanji representations of foreign words’. There’s also tempura, which apparently, isn’t authentically Japanese but from the Portuguese tempero.

As for Japanese dialects, it’s envious to see them using different dialects and still being able to understand what everyone’s saying aside from their different dictions, like when someone from Kyoto, who uses Kansai-ben, is able to freely talk and understand someone from Tokyo, who speaks normal Japanese.

Wow that is hard… our language Filipino should be an amalgation of the several main dialects spoken in the country. But alas who are our law makers kidding. Filipino is heavily reliant to the Tagalog dialect only. So our kababayans in the south feel betrayed and are averse in using it. Heck we still do not really have an official dictionary! Such is the state of our language… but Shane did mention a good point.

The only difference in Japanese is that they have a level of consciousness that word came from foreign origin because it is written in katakana, right? With that also, the word takes on its own nuance right?

I can only say Filipino words becoming part of the American dictionary at least… boondocs right? hehehe Well the proper known Imelda became an adjective for someone who is greedy… that is rather a bad example though…

Well maybe “tsaa” came from Chinese? I mean the Japanese just also copied that from Chinese right? So katori? Is it from Japanese origin meaning its all kunyomi or all onyomi? If its onyomi there is a possibility that the Chinese really thought of it first?