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I am looking for a one-word, or maybe a two-word comparable word
Sprachgefühl/Sprachgefuhl in Japanese.

According to [this](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/sprachgefuhl):

> **Sprachgefühl**  
>  言葉が持つ本来の語法に対する直感的な感覚.  
>  Meaning: an intuitive feeling for the natural idiom of a language

From what I researched I found: 語感, 語感覚  
Can I use 語感{ごかん} or 語感覚{ごかんかく} ? ~ Are these Kanji conveying the natural
feeling of Japanese properly?  
Or is it better with a longer explanation: 言語に感じ

Anyway, can I just use Katakana to convey this word? スプラゲーフー

Thanks in advance!

* * *

> **Sprachgefühl**  
>  noun, German.  
>  1.a sensitivity to language, especially for what is grammatically or
> idiomatically acceptable in a given language.

[Source](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sprachgefuhl?%29\[/link\]).
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question
word-choice loanwords word-requests
Sprachgefühl corresponding word in Japanese
Answers will differ depending on one's Sprachgefühl (no joke intended), but I
would personally opt to use 「[言語感覚]{げんごかんかく}」 over 「[語感]{ごかん}」 anytime.

The reason is that while only people can have 「言語感覚」 while both people and
words can have 「語感」. In fact, 「語感」 is far more often used to refer to the
feeling of a word than a person's sense for a word. Thus, I feel like one
could get rid of that ambiguity, at least a little, by using 「言語感覚」.

(My assumption here is that only people, and not words, can have Sprachgefühl.
German is my worst language, I admit openly. I am only an average native
Japanese-speaker.)

> Anyway, can I just use Katakana to convey this word? スプラゲーフー

No, definitely not. If you did, you would still need to explain what it means.

If you just said 「スプラゲーフー」, I myself would probably think you mispronounced
「ストロガノフ」.
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My ballot for 「絶対語感{ぜったいごかん}」. It's not a translation of "Sprachgefühl" but a
variation on the Japanese word 「絶対音感{ぜったいおんかん} (absolute pitch) 」, which names
the ability to intuitively recognize and reproduce a given musical note.

So 「絶対語感」 and "Sprachgefühl" may not line up directly, but, I think they are
pretty much doppelgängers of each other, at least in terms of meaning. Plus
the word 「絶対語感」has a neat look, ring and feel (its 語感, if you will) and that
never-heard-of-it-but-can-guess-what-it-means quality to it (for speakers of
Japanese, anyway), which may be just as well in this case.

* * *

But what does 「絶対語感」 mean, exactly? The ability to intuit whether a given word
or string of words are grammatically or idiomatically felicitous?

While I _think_ it's synonymous with the dictionary definition of
"Sprachgefühl", it's not a widely-used term, and its definition is nowhere
near as well-established as that of 「絶対音感」 or presumably of "Sprachgefühl".
And unlike the pitch of sound, grammar and usage and idiom and pronunciation
are not strictly language-wide, universally agreed-upon phenomena. They may
vary from region to region, from generation to generation, even from one
person to another.

It seems 「絶対語感」 owes what currency it has at the moment to the linguist
Shigehiko Toyama, who boasts [a rather impressive
oeuvre](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%96%E5%B1%B1%E6%BB%8B%E6%AF%94%E5%8F%A4),
among which is "わが子に伝える「絶対語感」 頭の良い子に育てる日本語の話し方".

Unfortunately I don't have any of his books, but as luck would have it I've
found [a blog
post](http://blog.goo.ne.jp/chorinkai/e/630ccf4f8319c71d0779602c88009b2d) that
purports to quote him as explaining what he intends the word to mean, in one
of his books "大人の言葉づかい". Here's my partial TL of it (Expect and pardon
mistranslations, though I try to keep them as few and forgivable as
possible.):

> What "絶対語感" is, it is the linguistic fabric of a given person. Grammar is
> part of it; when one hears such an utterance as 「あの人はりっぱな本に持っている」,
> immediately they judge it as incorrect. However, under normal circumstances,
> the judging person themselves does not have a clear consciousness of what
> their version of grammar is like, nor can they write it down on paper.
>
> Rhythm and pitch too are encompassed within the scope of 絶対語感. When people
> from the Kansai region feel Tokyoites' speech to be "foreign", it is due to
> the difference in their 絶対語感.
>
> The 絶対語感 of people who speak of 「食べられる」「着られる」「寝られる」 is distinct from that of
> those in the habit of saying 「食べれる」「着れる」「寝れる」(*TN: the much maligned
> 「ら抜きことば」). Though they deem the usage improper, they find it hard to say
> that aloud. In some dialects the 「ら抜きことば」 has long been part of correct
> usage.
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