Cognate Terms for Manga and Anime

If you look at the word for ‘stories told on paper with drawings and often words’ from around the world, you’ll get a whole lot of different terms and phrases. However, if said publications happen to be from Japan, then the terminology becomes a lot more predictable with some cognate with the word manga being the word of choice. It could be argued that part of the appeal and essence of the term manga is that it’s from Japan so the left as is in most cases.



word for comics in general

word for Japanese comics

Dutch

strip(pen), stripblad, stripverhal(en)

manga

English

comics, comic books, graphic novel

manga

French

bande désinée, BD, bédé

manga

Russian

komiks

manga

Thai

nǎng-sʉ̌ʉ-gaa-dtuun

manga


Weirdly enough, there’s a similar split in nomenclature when it comes to animated movies and shows. 


anime

manga

Languages with Cognate Terms

71

79

Languages Likely without Cognates

2

0





0.972

1.00


It’s worth noting that there are other words that refer to specific kinds of comics from a specific country or region, but the word 'manga' has had by far the most success. I have heard the word manhwa used in English and mankhva (манхва) in Russian a handful of times and if Korean comics ever gain more traction, then this might also become a mainstream word.


Also, terms for manga are probably skewed since with some languages currently listed as having no data possibly calling them something like ‘Japanese comics.’ But more research is needed.


All and all, there are at least seventy languages that have cognate terms for manga and anime, which is nothing to sneeze at. Though we once again run into the limited dictionary problem.

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