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In English, if I want to talk about my Irish heritage, I would say "I'm
Irish". I have an American passport, and I've never set foot in Ireland, but I
still consider myself Irish. Both sides of my family have ancestors who came
from Ireland, my name is Irish, etc.

In Japanese, could I use `アイルランド人` to the same effect?

On a related note, how could I talk about partial bloodlines? For example, I'm
mostly Irish, but I have some Native American and French blood, (and who knows
what else) etc.

PS I suppose technically the "correct" English term would be "Irish-American",
but we don't always say that.
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2012-06-09T16:59:08.383
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2012-10-20T03:59:50.080
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words
Can the suffix -人 be used to express heritage?
> In Japanese, could I use アイルランド人 to the same effect?

The suffix 系{けい} ("lineage") is probably better suited for describing
heritage. 人 more commonly indicates nationality, in my experience.

However, I feel it is necessary for Americans to specify nationality in
addition to heritage when identifying themselves in Japanese. For example, I
think it would be better to say アイルランド系アメリカ人, similar to 日系{にっけい}アメリカ人
(Japanese American).

> On a related note, how could I talk about partial bloodlines? For example,
> I'm mostly Irish, but I have some Native American and French blood, (and who
> knows what else) etc.

I am not a native speaker of Japanese, but I might say something like
「私は4分の3がアイルランド系で8分の1がネイティブ・アメリカン系で8分の1がフランス系です」 ("I am three-quarters Irish,
one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth French").
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What you are trying to express is a concept that is actually fairly unusual
around the world in how the concepts of nationality, heritage, and identity
are used. In America, Canada, Australia, and maybe other places with similar
large immigrant populations, each of these concepts are options that can be
combined to suit individual tastes.

In countries with longer, continuous histories and more homogeneous people,
these concepts are merely different aspects of the same thing.

Japan is one of those places where culture, heritage, nationality, language,
and "race" are generally understood to be the same thing. Even as Japan has
become, and continues to become, more and more internationally aware, you need
to appreciate that Japanese culture on the whole is still relatively early in
the process of transitioning into the understanding that these things can be
separate. A lot of people you encounter will be unfamiliar with the concept of
what you are trying to convey.

In short, what you are trying to express isn't a matter of merely finding the
right words. The concepts that drive the meaning behind the words are
different between your culture and Japanese culture, and so you need to
navigate that divide if you want to be understood.

Starting with your proposal of telling people you are `アイルランド人{じん}`, this will
make Japanese people think you are from Ireland, full stop. Adding `人{じん}`, in
the context we are talking about, expresses "person from".

What you're trying to say, I think, is `アイルランド系{けい}アメリカ人{じん}`. An American of
Irish descent. This gets across the point that you come from an Irish family,
but I think you need to appreciate how this gives the impression that you feel
quite separate from America. In Japan, as you may know, there are groups of
people in Japan called "zainichi" (`在日{ざいにち}`). The term usually is shorthand
for Koreans born and raised in Japan, but it can apply to other nationalities
under similar circumstances. It is a huge political issue, so I don't want to
get into it too deep, but the main point is that these people aren't merely
seen as being Japanese of Korean descent, even though they may only speak
Japanese and have never been to Korea. They are seen as Koreans who are _in_
Japan, but for a variety of politically heated reasons, are not really people
_of_ Japan. Similarly, you might be seen as an Irish person who, for some
reason, was in America, even born there, but not _really_ American by either
your own declaration or that of other Americans.

Going further, to express your Native American, French, or any other heritage,
you could start splitting down to fractions to express how your family is
delineated by ethnicity, but that would sound as overly specific and obnoxious
in Japanese as it does in English. Also, I'm guessing, you are looking for a
more offhand way to throw it into the conversation, not how to describe a
whole family tree.

To say you are "descended from", I believe the correct verb to use is `引{ひ}く`,
which means "pull", so, in essence, you are "pulled from a blood line". So to
say your family was of French and Native American descent, you could say
`家族{かぞく}はフランスとネイティブ・アメリカンの血{ち}を引{ひ}く`. "My family is of French and Native
American heritage." But that makes it sound like your family is entirely
French and Native American. What you want to say is that you just happen to
have a little of that mixed in with your predominantly Irish bloodline. In
that case, you want to use `入{はい}る`, to mean the blood was "put in".
`家族{かぞく}はフランスとネイティブ・アメリカンの血{ち}が入{はい}っている` You can throw in a `ちょっと` to make it
sound even more like there was just a little bit.

Bringing it all together:

> （私{わたし}は）ちょっとフランスとネイティブ・アメリカンの血{ち}が入{はい}っていたアイルランド系{けい}アメリカ人{じん}
>
> I'm an Irish American with some French and Native American heritage.

Having said that to the Japanese person you're speaking to, you still might
have to contend with the fact that impression you are trying to give might be
different from the impression your Japanese listener gets. That's a function
of the cultural divide I've outlined above, and that can't be helped. You'll
almost certainly have to have that conversation no matter what words you use
to start with, but I think that at least the ones I've provided start you at
the most accurate place possible given the language options.

Just as a pointer for further learning, other words you might look at are
`血筋{ちすじ}`, which means "lineage", but I believe is more about hierarchy, as in
coming from an elite family. There's also `混血{こんけつ}`, which means "mixed
heritage", but literally means "mixed blood", and since it's in opposition to
`純血{じゅんけつ}`, "pure blood", can be used in a derisive sense.

Hope that helps.
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