Jjokbari

Jjokbari
A banner in South Korea reads: "Dokdo! Don't worry, the ghost and jjokbari-catching Marines are here."[1]
Korean name
Hangul 쪽발이 or 쪽바리 Revised Romanization Jjokbari McCune-Reischauer Tchokpari
Japanese name
Kana チョッパリ Rōmaji Choppari

A pair of Japanese tabi, suggested to have evoked a comparison with pigs' feet

Jjokbari (Korean: 쪽발이) is an ethnic slur in the Korean language used to refer to Japanese people. According to one survey, it was Korea's second-most common slur against Japanese people (ahead of waenom and behind ilbonnom, both meaning roughly "Japanese bastard(s)").^[2]

Origin

The National Institute of the Korean Language notes that it is grammatically a noun, and defines it as:

1. Walking with only one foot^[3]
2. Foot split into two, two-hooved foot^[4]
3. A word which conveys a disparaging view of Japanese people^[5]

Jjokbari is generally accepted as literally meaning "pig's foot".^[6] This is suggested to evoke a comparison between the appearance of a pig's cloven hooves and the feet of a person wearing tabi (traditional Japanese-style socks which have a separation between the big toe and its neighbor, to allow the wearing of thonged footwear). Alternatively, it may refer to the resemblance between the sound made by a pigs' hooves and that made by a person wearing geta (traditional Japanese wooden sandals) when they are walking.^[7] However, a third theory states that jjok instead means "piece", with the intended implication being that Japanese shoes are incomplete compared to Korean shoes. Unlike Korean-style straw shoes which completely cover the foot, Japanese-style straw shoes consisted only of a sole and straps to bind it to the foot, leaving the top part of the foot exposed.^[8]

In Japan

The term has also been borrowed into Japanese language spoken by ethnic Koreans in Japan, where it is rendered Choppari.^[7] Its usage by Koreans in Japan is roughly comparable in social context to that of honky in the United States.^[9] The form ban-jjokbari (literally, "half pig-foot") originated as a derogatory reference to Japanised Koreans during the Japanese colonial period in Korea; later, it came to be used by people in Korea to refer to ethnic Koreans in Japan.^[10] The Japanised pronunciation of this form, ban-choppari, is also widely used by Koreans in Japan, either to refer to Japanised Koreans or to people of mixed Japanese and Korean descent.^[7][11]

See also

• Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea
• Zainichi Korean language

References

Notes

1. ^ Original: 독도야! 걱정마라, 귀신도 잡고, 쪽바리 잡는 해병대가 있단다
2. ^ Miyazaki 2001: 23
3. ^ Original: 한 발만 달린 물건
4. ^ Original: 발통이 두 조각으로 된 물건
5. ^ Original: 일본 사람을 낮잡아 이르는 말
6. ^ Compare with the term for "ham hock", 족발/jokbal
7. ^ ^{a b c} Constantine 1992
8. ^ Lee 1999
9. ^ International Herald Tribune 2001-03-24
10. ^ Kramer 2003: 162-163
11. ^ Gohl 1976: 139-141

Sources

• Constantine, Peter (1992). Japanese Street Slang. Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Weatherhill. ISBN 0834802503. 
• Gohl, Gerhard (1976). Die koreanische Minderheit in Japan als Fall einer"politisch-ethnischen" Minderheitengruppe (The Korean minority in Japan as a case of a "political-ethnic" minority group). Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz. 
• Kramer, Eric Mark (2003). The Emerging Monoculture: Assimilation and the Model Minority. Westport, Connecticut, United States: Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0275973123. 
• Lee, O-Young (1999). Things Korean. North Clarendon, Vermont, United States: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0804821291. 
• Miyazaki, Mina (2001). チョッパリからイルボンヘ 文化交流の効果 (From Choppari to Ilbon: the effects of cultural exchange). Seikei University. http://www.law.keio.ac.jp/~masuyama/semi/senri01.pdf. Retrieved 2007-05-10. 
• Shoji, Kaori (2001-03-24). "From Tokyo, a Film of Us vs. Them". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 2007-06-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070628214907/http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/03/24/korfilm_ed2_.php. Retrieved 2007-05-10. 
• "표준국어대사전 (Great Dictionary of the Standard National Language)". National Institute of the Korean Language. http://korean.go.kr. Retrieved 2007-05-10.