What does this mean to you if you were to see an application named "Japanese 語"?


My friend is creating a word card application to help people memorize Japanese
words / Kanji. The subject of what to call the application came up and he
asked me for some suggestions. One of the requirements is that it's a very
simple name with the word Japanese in English and then something else.

I suggested "Japanese 語" be the name of the application and I would like to
get some input from the people here.

I already looked up the meaning of 語 but what I would like to know is does it
look totally confusing or make some sense with the English word "Japanese"
before it.




I would say it's indeed confusing at least to native Japanese speakers.

  * 語 meaning _word_ is not really common outside academic contexts. Words listed on a word card/list are usually called 単語 by Japanese people who study foreign languages.
  * 語 is also a suffix meaning _language_ or _-ese_. For example 日本 means _Japan_ and 日本語 means _Japanese_. When I see "Japanese 語", I can't help reading it as something weird like "Japanese-ese".

"Japanese 単語" would be at least not confusing.




I would say it's indeed confusing at least to native Japanese speakers.

  * 語 meaning _word_ is not really common outside academic contexts. Words listed on a word card/list are usually called 単語 by Japanese people who study foreign languages.
  * 語 is also a suffix meaning _language_ or _-ese_. For example 日本 means _Japan_ and 日本語 means _Japanese_. When I see "Japanese 語", I can't help reading it as something weird like "Japanese-ese".

"Japanese 単語" would be at least not confusing.

