• Next article: 4.2. Which Japanese words come from Portuguese?

4.1. Is arigatou (arigato) related to Portuguese "obrigado"?

No. Arigatou (ありがとう), the Japanese for "thank you", comes from arigatai (有難い), a conjunction of the verb aru, "to have", with the ending gatai (難い) which means "difficult". The "ou" ending comes from the conjunction of the adjectival arigataku with the polite verb gozaimasu (originally from gozaru).

Other common examples of this type of conjugation include omedetou gozaimasu (congratulations) from medetaku and ohayou gozaimasu (good morning) from hayaku. The word arigatai existed in Japanese long before the Japanese ever encountered Portuguese. It can be found in some of the earliest Japanese literature such as the manyoushuu (See 1.3.10. What is man'yougana?). Similarly, "obrigado" in Portuguese comes from Latin "obligare". The change from l to r is typical of Latin-derived Portuguese words.

(See also 4.2. Which Japanese words come from Portuguese?)

• Next article: 4.2. Which Japanese words come from Portuguese?

Copyright © 1994-2012 Ben Bullock

If you have questions, corrections, or comments, please contact Ben Bullock or use the discussion forum / Privacy

Book reviews	Convert Japanese numbers	Handwritten kanji recognition	Stroke order diagrams	Convert Japanese units