Sports in Japanese - Sportsball
Sunday, November 13, 2016
There are a lot of animes about sports, for some strange reason, and we all love to watch them showing the characters' hard work and sweat pay off while we're comfortably seated behind the screen. But what are those sports called in Japanese?
To begin with, the word "sports," or "sport," in Japanese is supootsu スポーツ. Most sports in japanese actually have two names. One written with katakana カタカナ, the other with kanji 漢字.
The difference between the usage of these two Japanese alphabets is that the katakana name will be a just a Japanese way of saying the English word, while the kanji name will be a more Japanese-esque word.
To begin with, the word "sports," or "sport," in Japanese is supootsu スポーツ. Most sports in japanese actually have two names. One written with katakana カタカナ, the other with kanji 漢字.
The difference between the usage of these two Japanese alphabets is that the katakana name will be a just a Japanese way of saying the English word, while the kanji name will be a more Japanese-esque word.
Sportsball
Sports that use a ball usually end with the word "-ball" in English. In Japanese, that ball suffix would be kyuu 球, the word tama 球 of same kanji meaning "ball." Here's a list of these ball sports:
- Badminton
badominton バドミントン
ukyuu 羽球
(feather 羽 + ball 球) - Baseball
beesubooru ベースボール
yakyuu 野球
(field 野 + ball 球) - Basketball
basukettobooru バスケットボール
basuke バスケ
roukyuu 籠球
(basket 籠 + ball 球) - Billiards
biriyaado ビリヤード
doukyuu 撞球 - Cricket
kuriketto クリケット - Curling
kaaringu カーリング - Dodgeball
dojjibooru ドッジボール
doddibooru ドッヂボール
dojji ドッジ
hikyuu 避球
(evade 避 + ball 球) - Football & Soccer
futtobooru フットボール
sakkaa サッカー
sakkabooru サッカーボール
tamakeri 球蹴り
shuukyuu 蹴球
(kick 蹴 + ball 球) - American Football
amerikan futtobooru アメリカンフットボール
amefuto アメフト
gaikyuu 鎧球
(armor 鎧 + ball 球) - Gateball
gettobooru ゲートボール
monkyuu 門球
(gate 門 + ball 球) - Golf
gorufo ゴルフ
dakyuu 打球
(hitting 打 + ball 球) - Handball
handobooru ハンドボール
soukyuu 送球
(send 送 + ball 球) - Hockey
hokkee ホッケー
joukyuu 杖球
(cane 杖 + ball 球) - Ice Hockey
aisu hokkee アイスホッケー - Field Hockey
fiirudo hokkee フィールドホッケー - Roller Hockey
rooraa hokkee ローラーホッケー - Ping Pong
pinpon ピンポン
takkyuu 卓球
(table 卓 + ball 球) - Quidditch
kuidicchi クィディッチ - Tennis
tenisu テニス
teikyuu 庭球
(courtyard 庭 + ball 球) - Volleyball
baree バレー
bareebooru バレーボール
haikyuu 排球
(repel 排 + ball 球) - Water Polo
suikyuu 水球
(water 水 + ball 球)
(some names in kanji retrived from supootsu kanji hyouki deeta - zatsugaku deetabanku スポーツ・漢字表記データ＞雑学データバンク)
It's an anime about Volleyball whose name, as you might have just learned, means literally "Volleyball."
I thought it was worth noting.
Haikyuu Anime
Now, remember that anime about Volleyball, haikyuu ハイキュー?It's an anime about Volleyball whose name, as you might have just learned, means literally "Volleyball."
I thought it was worth noting.
Fighting Sports
For names of fighting sports, see Names of Fighting Styles in Japanese.