Every language is constantly evolving, and while the English major in me isn’t always happy about the LOLification of my own native tongue or seeing teenagers going weeks without typing an upper case letter or using punctation, I know that it’s natural for language to be pulled in different directions by its various speakers.

It’s normal for words to be borrowed from other languages and adjusted for meaning to fit new situations, too, and fully half of all English words come from French — for example, words like beef, pork and poultry came to indicate the meat of cows, pigs and chickens through the interaction between French-speaking landowners (who ate the meat) and their English-speaking hired help (who tended the animals).

The Japanese borrow words from other languages too, and not just silly phrases like SUPER HAPPY LUCKY. While most foreign loan words are 20th Century imports, quite a few came into use in the Edo Period and before, including tempura (from the Portuguese word for spice), garasu (window glass), ko-hi (coffee), and kirishitan (Christian). In fact, these words have been in use for so long they have kanji assigned to them, which violates the rule that katakana be used to write foreign-based words. Since these kanji words have old-world charm associated with them that’s not unlike archaic spellings of words in English (”Ye Olde”), it’s common to see these kanji words used to create a unique atmosphere in coffee shops, etc.