Follow up to this tweet.
(HT @ctukyoto for the inspiration 
)https://twitter.com/nihomophones/status/1036588518519308288?s=21 …
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To reduce foreign influence on Japanese, wartime authorities invented native alternatives to what they called 敵性語 [tekiseigo], ‘the language of the enemy’. Some of the names for musical instruments aren’t so catchy...pic.twitter.com/dl6v1L2YhJ
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Do you have a list of all alternatives of all things?
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Thanks you. That's all alternatives or is incomplete? I supose the Japanese people will understand that vocab. I'm not very good at Jap. yet but I want speak real Jap. and not a lot of 外来語gairaigo that isn't real Jap. Using this words always I don't feel I'm speaking Japanese
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It definitely feels less good, but don’t forget that using the katakana here is CORRECT Japanese. No one uses the kanji versions anymore. And people used the katakana versions before the war too, so they are actually older!
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I will can surprise Japanese people with unused terms
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Don't. Japanese people won't understand you if you try to use these terms. It's not cool. It's not "different". It's non-sensical. The katakana names are the actual instrument names.
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Agreed. Once witnessed a learner trying to ‘teach’ a native speaker the two different kanji for the kinds of flying squirrel you get in Japan. Needless to say, they were NOT impressed...
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Presumably the unwieldiness was part of the point... “Maybe if we make it really inconvenient to talk/write about saxophones, people will just give up using them”
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(In the music shop) ‘Can I get one of those back-and-forth metally, er, one of those retractable twisted...can I get a shamisen please?’
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The words for piano, violin, and accordion well predate the wartime efforts to eliminate enemy words.
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That’s true. Older words, but certainly encouraged more during that era!
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1/2 Actually, the others, as well as most such words were created by the overzealous private-sector organizations that had been mobilized in the total war effort. In a way, this is scarier than the urban legend that "wartime authorities invented native alternatives."
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2/2 Ironically, the authorities, military and otherwise, continued to use English words that had been co-opted into Japanese deep into the war years.
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That’s really fascinating - thanks!
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You're welcome. Too often, it's civilians with influence including a gungho media that push nations into unprofitable wars and their excesses.
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Is there a full list of these alternatives?
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I love that they were trying to remove foreign influence and yet the piano is still just a 'Western Harp'. Couldn't they call it Keys-WIth-Hammers-Hitting-Metal-Strings-In-A-Wooden-Box or something easier?
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I suppose they had to be so damn long because a normal wasei-kango would be too Chinese.
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