Term Word Karate Javanese to English
Most of the terms that we use in class are actually composites of multiple
Japanese words. Jodan tzuki for instance, uses "jodan" (upper level)
and "tzuki" (punch). We interpret this (slightly inaccurately) to
mean "head-level punch".
Just like English, there are lots of words that can be used to clarify the
main action. Anyway, these actions and modifiers are generally just grouped
together in a type of dojo abbreviation which, whilst not absolutely
grammatically correct, gets the point over with the minimum number of words.
It's usual to specify the side (left, right), the level (high, low, etc),
the body part (single knuckle, forefist, etc), the direction (rising,
roundhouse, straight, etc), and the technique (punch, kick, block, etc) in that
order. For example, migi gedan choku tzuki or jodan kizami ren tzuki. In Japan,
they might add the word "no" (of) after the side command, but we tend
to leave it out.
You know that a straight punch can be performed at multiple levels and you
recognise the word that describes the level at which it is performed - I don't
need to insult your intelligence by actually stating each variant in full.
In constructing this guide, I've consulted numerous Japanese people and they
often disagreed about the exact meaning of a word. For starters, many words
only exist in a martial arts context, so if Japanese people are not familiar
with martial arts, they wouldn't necessarily know the meaning of words, any
more than you would know the meaning of medical terms unless you were in that
field. To further complicate things, some words are not only context sensitive,
but even depend upon the kanji (Japanese characters) used to write them. Take
the term "uchi": it means both "inside" and
"strike", and the Japanese word sounds exactly the same in both
instances. Some words have a literal and intepreted meaning.:For instance dojo
literally means "way place", but we use it to mean training hall. Pronunciation notes
Strictly speaking, virtually nobody in a European, Antipodean or American
dojo pronounces Japanese words properly. Originally, I started by writing the
GKR way of saying the words, but to be honest, I've decided against that
approach. In describing each word's pronounciation, I've tried to break it down
into the component sounds, which I've written. Any word in our language can be
expressed using a standard set of 41 phonemes (sound elements). If you
encounter an element that you recognise as a word, then it is pronounced
exactly as you would normally pronounce that word. For instance
"dojo" can be expressed as "doe-joe". Unfortunately, there
are a few recurring vowel sounds that can't be expressed using real words, and
these are clarified below:
Alternate spellings
You'll notice quite a few words that are separated by a forward slash like
this tsuki/tzuki/zuki. This indicates common alternate spellings of the words. Many
Japanese sounds cannot be precisely written in English because we have no exact
equivalent sound.