you've got questions, we've got sarcasm

japanese dictionary project faq page

Where the heck are the rest of the words? I only see a few letters here and not the whole alphabet! Dude, what gives?

Since some letters (like x) don't have a romaji equivalent, they won't be included. (words starting with a hard 'c' sound would be under 'k', and ones that start with a soft 'c' sound don't exist in Japanese but would probably sound like 'shi' and be under 's'.) Also this project was started on 2/22/05 and is not yet complete, so check back later for new additions.

What's a 'katakana word?' I keep seeing them in the dictionary but it doesn't say what that means...

Japanese has 3 exciting writing systems. Kanji, (little pictures that mean words, stolen from the Chinese at random 3 year-intervals during wars when dozens of ninjas and millions of Chinese would die) hiragana, (squiggly characters that indicate a phonetic sound) and katakana, which are related to and have the same sounds as hiragana but are used mainly for foreign words and onomatopoeia. If you don't recognize one just by sounding it out, keep in mind that the Japanese steal words from other languages besides English.

Why are you doing this? What is the point of this 'dictionary project' thing you're trying to do?

I'm just trying to take all the stuff I've learned in class and about Japanese in the last three years and put it into a database that I can use and that others might use to benefit from all the hardship I've gone through to get here.

Can't you just go on the 'net and look words up?

Most of the online dictionaries I've found need you to enter the word into a box and it has to be in some special kind of romanization or kanji form and half the time it's not there. With lists like this you can scroll through the words and try to find the one you're looking for. It's also helpful if you know what it sounds like or you forgot it and are trying to recognize it. But there are some much more complete online dictionaries on the sources page you can use as well.

I see lots of errors here, and I know a bunch of words you don't have listed. Where can I send additions/revisions?

You can e-mail them to damiendiablos@yahoo.co.jp. I got a yahoo.co.jp address because their e-mail page is much better at displaying kanji and to keep some of the burden off my rocketmail account. You can also IM your suggestions to DamienDiablos via AIM.

What romanization are you using?

I'm not. I'm actually just spelling the word the way I think it sounds, which often is the same as Hepburn romanization, but not always.

Where did you get these definitions? Are you committing copyright infringement of some kind?

Not intentionally. I used my textbooks and some other books I have to decide which words to start with, but I tried to reword the definitions to fit my understanding of how they're used. If a definition is copied word-for-word, it's probably because there is not a better way to approximate the meaning of the Japanese term. Other words were taught to me by Japanese people and from Japanese media. As of yet, I don't own a dictionary and don't really want to buy one.

Why are there phrases too? Shouldn't it just be individual words?

I included some phrases if they're considered idioms, that is to say if when you say this particular phrase it has a meaning that differs from what the individual words mean. I.e. 'atama ga ii' translates as 'his/her head is good', but it means 'he/she is smart(or bright)'.

Why aren't all the same words included in both the Japanese->English and the English->Japanese sections?

Since the focus of this is mainly on Japanese words, the English-to-Japanese dictionary is likely to become neglected or incomplete. If you'd like to help out with that you can e-mail me some words.