71 Comments
In Korean, bag is 가방 (gabang) and it's pronounced exactly the same as in Japanese
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Good topic!
'Bag' is translated 鞄/カバン in other words バッグ. I think that 'バッグ' is ハンドバッグhand bag, ショルダーバッグ/shoulder bag and トートバッグ/totebag, etc. I don't know these words are used as the same in English and Japanese well. Perhaps they are similar. (somebody help me.)
And 'bag' is translated the word '袋/ふくろ' as well. I assume that the 'plastic bag' is a bag that is prepared at supermarchets or convinience stores. It is called 'レジ袋/れじぶくろ'. You can search for about 'レジ袋' in wiki. Also there are the words 'ビニール袋/びにーるぶくろ', 'ポリ袋/ぽりぶくろ'.
Though I'm not sure. If people in 'Kansai dialects' maybe say 'ナイロン袋/ないろんぶくろ'.
関西/Kansai dialects is Osaka and around Osaka. (This explanation is pretty rough. >_<)
A lot of it is katakana, which is Japan's other syllabary. The sounds are all the same, they're just written differently. The use of hiragana or katakana depends on the context. Loadwords from other languages, such as バケツ (baketsu, bucket) are often written in katakana, while native japanese words are written in hiragana.
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Yes, I think the word "バッグ" is more generally than "かばん" in Japan. Especially, for a woman's bag.
I would say to look at it this way. One is in hiragana which is for native japanese words, and one is in katakana which is for american words that have been adopted. So in hiragana it's かばん "ka-ba-n" (kaban) and in katakana it's バッグ "ba-g-gu" (baggu)
Katakana isn't only adopting English words but others as well. Such as German or Portuguese.
Hey! Portuguese! I speak this language! But I did not understand how katakana would help me, I was trying to remenber which words I know in katakana. Well. I know... Nothing more than a big zero.
One example I can think of of a loanword that's from a language other than English is the word for drinking glass. It's コップ, from the Dutch word kop.
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Wiktionary says: "From Dutch kop and also from Portugueae copo. Cognate (via Late Latin cuppa) with カップ (kappu), from English cup.
So コップ is from Dutch/Portuguese and カップ is from English cup.
I believe Japanese culture has beeb influenced far more by American culture than any other englishs speaking country
Wow, I'm also studying korean, and the word for bag is almost the same, is "gabang" 가방.
According to Wiktionary, Korean borrowed this word from Japanese. In addition, you may find that many Japanese and Korean words are similar, because they are influenced by (ancient) Chinese very much.
Correct :) Because Kanji system is quite complicated, Japanese creates a list of（常用漢字/じょうようかんじ）, which means common Kanjis. According to what I have found, 鞄 is not included in this list and is less common than other Kanjis.
kaban = bag
"Come On (kaban), bag, we need to go.. to the store"
..and I picture a purse or grocery bag, or backpack that I'll need.
A while back I looked up what the Japanese word for "portmanteau" is out of curiosity and found out that one of the words for it is かばん語 (bag + language). I dunno why but there's just something about that that's kinda amusing.
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Wiktionary says for etymology: "鞄 (kaban, "bag") + 語 (go, "word"), calque of English portmanteau word.
So in short, 語 can also mean "word" and then it is the "word" part of "portmanteau word"
The translation says both bag and night which was "Yoru" Something wrong or just a synonym?
- 164
I think you have discovered mistaken. There are two different words 'かばん（鞄）bag' and 'ばん（晩）night'.
I think it's just something they overlooked. ばん can be another way of saying "night". Not かばん though.
Is backpack a correct translation for it? Can it mean backpack as well or absolutely not?
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I'd say リュック (ryukku) for backpack. Japanese elementary school kids' backpacks are called ランドセル (randoseru).
- 753
To say "my bag", yes, that's right. To just say bag as this question is asking, it's かばん.
Just for our information because the comments confused me a bit I looked it up:
According to both Tangorin.com and Jisho.org かばん《鞄》カバン (Ka ba n) is a "bag; satchel; briefcase; basket" and when you click on the Kanji it includes "suitcase" as a definition.
Hope this is helpful.
Katakana is used for borrowed foreign words while hiraga is used for native Japanese words
Basic Rule: Hiraganas are used for Japanese original words, Katakanas are used for loading words.
I just have a sort of unrelated question. I see mutiple comments saying romaji and kanji. I also see way more complex symbols that Ive never seen before... Is that all Hiragana?
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鞄 (kanji)
かばん (hiragana)
カバン (katakana)
kaban (romaji)
Katakana and hiragana are known collectively as "kana".
Being fluent in Korean, I see many words that Korean seems to have adopted from Japanese, such as "kaban", or "gabang" in Korean.
Think of Kadame Mezeme from Toriyama Sekien's art. (sorry if this is vague. Kadame Mezeme is an exploding dormouse, which is very memorable.)
C'" Zhu*) it mean i needed a pencil to practice,merrize,and to know and to get more iformation
