Quote:
Originally Posted by YuriTokoro
Hi.
Could you correct my English?
‘A Dress Shirt’ has become ‘a Y-Shirt’ in Japan
We call a "dress" shirt a "Y-shirt" in Japan.
By the end of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), people had begun wearing dress shirts. At that time, dress shirts were only available in white, so they were called “white shirts”.
However, the word “white” was indecipherable as a word to Japanese speakers, to whom it sounded like the letter “Y”.
Many Japanese people have trouble with spoken English; the Japanese language has many vowels which makes hearing consonant sounds difficult. To illustrate this point, Japanese speakers refer to “white" as “howaito” (white=ホワイト) in romaji.
By the Tisho era (1912-26), people began referring to white dress shirts “Y-shirts”.
Even though many colors of dress shirts are available now, we still call them Y-shirts, or "waishatsu".
Here is a song named “Heya to Y shirts to watashi” (or “Our Room, Your Shirts and Me").
YouTube - Hiramatsu Eri - Heya to Y shirts to Watashi
Thank you.
Meiji period - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taishō period - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Interesting history, Yuri. I'm not much for dress shirts myself, as I don't have a formal job...yet. I have worn them in the past for funerals and weddings and other functions though.
As for revisions, some words were changed. The first change that concerned me was "Miji". I had thought it might mean "Meiji", which was confirmed by the wikipedia link at the end of the post.
"Indiscernible" was changed to "indecipherable" to better convey the concept that the word "white" was a word not familiar to Japanese speakers. This, hopefully, makes the point of the sentence clearer (the changing of "white" to "Y", a more easily understood way to describe the item of clothing).
This post brings to mind the many times anime characters refer to a "T-shirt" as the similiar-sounding "T-shirtsu" (which is how it sounds to me). Another example of the strength of the Japanese language to adopt other words into its use.
Good work, Yuri
