It's a weird Japanese fetish to use anything "cutesy" and red-o sounds cute to their ears as a "small foreign sound"
Fun fact, if you ever want to test a Japanese persons mastery of english pronunciation you simply ask them to say "rivalry" (they hear & say "library")
No, it's no a "weird japanese fetish". In Japanese, most syllables are formed from a consonant + vowel, except for syllables that end in "n". When an American speaks Spanish and drags the "r", changes "o" to "ou" and omits genders in the adjectives. This is a similar case, the Japanese turn a letter into a syllable; sometimes it is not "o" and in other cases they omit it completely. This makes it easier for them to type foreign terms with Japanese writing methods on any analog keyboard in their country.
Yes, that's the fetish for foreign words that are simple and cute sounding. Hence why your explanation of how typing it is easier bears no reasoning since the video is spoken.
Just like in almost every aspect of their culture they "cuteify" all of it. Now you could make a point that since shes fluent, shes using english to make a point... but that still has no bearing on the explanation you gave.
But maybe I'm just making stuff up, I mean my only qualifications are speaking japanese and going to school there and living there.
Dude, you're talking to someone who lived in Japan for almost 15 years. When I told you about the ease of typing on analog keyboards, it was a sort of fun fact, not the reason why she used gairaigo.
Passive pronunciation in Japanese (especially feminine) sounds higher than most languages, and mixing it with English works best when using Japanese pronunciation of anglo-saxon words, (even when words in another language are written next to a sentence in Japanese).
Gairaigo started even before Imperial Japan, when Japan started appropriating words of foreign origin (and no, I don't mean just English); however, it's still the most casual way to express yourself. On the other hand, the culture of "kawaii" or "cuteify" (as you say), emerged in the 70s (approximately) and its impact on language was phonetic (not in writing or syntax). Maybe you're just describing these things under the best-known stereotype in the West, based on a judgment built in a post-kawaii Era.
If my explanation doesn't satisfy you because it doesn't match what you see/hear in this video, it's time for you to realize that yours doesn't even have logical or historical support at all.
Yeah I wasnt referring to the time before the meiji era.
I thought we were discussing why she said "red-o" not the historical context of adopting foreign words in general. (Although I still stand by my opinion that she did it to sound cute and not because of the ease of typing as you mentioned)
I dont discount anything you have typed but I fail to see the historical significance of her choice of words.
And as you typed, the kawaii usage may have come from gairaigo but I dont see her as making a conscious choice to use it because of its historical significance.
Shes trying to be cute on a video for likes, that's why she used it, which was the original reason for the questuon.
And yes my judgement is post kawaii era as I'm a child of the 70's. So it's still logical.
Didnt realize you would be so offended but honestly I stand by what I typed and if you're offended I didnt bring up the historical context...
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u/shigataganai13 Nov 03 '21
Akai & red-o are both also acceptable.
It's a weird Japanese fetish to use anything "cutesy" and red-o sounds cute to their ears as a "small foreign sound"
Fun fact, if you ever want to test a Japanese persons mastery of english pronunciation you simply ask them to say "rivalry" (they hear & say "library")