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Sitting in a restaurant yesterday I saw a sign advertising a mango flavoured
bagel. It was described as `トロピカルな味`.

That just got me wondering... whenever a `外来語【がいらいご】(word taken from a foreign
language / "loan word")` is used as an adjective, is it always a `な`
adjective?

Are there any examples of loanword `い` adjectives?

Are there any general guidelines as to how loan words are made to conform to
Japanese adjective rules.

_(Please note I'm not familiar with linguistics, so even though I'm asking a
fairly technical grammatical question, please dumb it down for me as much as
possible. Thanks!)_
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2011-08-07T03:54:26.083
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2011-08-07T04:53:01.633
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question
loanwords adjectives
Are foreign adjectives always な adjectives?
Reading up on sound symbolism, I found this

> Nasal consonants like n and m convey warmth, tactuality, softness, and sound
> more personal and subjective.
>

>> e.g. むちむち (plump)

The な in な-adjectives is a nasal sound. I conject that they are subjective
descriptions.

* * *

Also consider the comparison between adjectives ending in ~しい and those ending
in ~い:

> For ~しい type adjectives,
>

>> 悲しい

>>

>> 寂しい

>>

>> 楽しい

>
> These are adjectives that cannot be objectively measured, hence subjective.
> (And also a large majority of them describe psychological states)
>
> * * *
>
> For ~い type adjectives,
>

>> 重い

>>

>> 広い

>>

>> 暑い

>
> These are objectively described; they can be measured.

* * *

**Conjecture:**

For `トロピカル` there is no objective scale for "tropical-ness" hence it takes on
な. It does not take on ～しい since it is not a psychological description (as
most ～しい adjectives are).

For `エロ` my dictionary shows both `エロな` and `エロい`.

So depending on whether subjectivity/objectivity is conveyed, it corresponds
to the use of な or い.

See also ["i-adjectives used as na-adjectives: is there a difference? (e.g.
大きい versus
大きな)"](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1853/i-adjectives-used-as-
na-adjectives-is-there-a-difference-e-g-versus)
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2011-08-07T14:48:34.007
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If you're OK with エロい (as discussed in comments), there are examples like:

  * エロい
  * グロい
  * ナウい

But note that these are directly derived from エロ(チシズム), グロ(テスク), and ナウ
("now"). They were not borrowed into the language as -i adjectives; they were
borrowed into the language as nouns and/or na adjectives, and then THOSE
borrowings were turned into -i adjectives. Ultimately, this is a form of
slang/language play along the lines of the verbs タクる for "take a taxi", マクる
for "eat at McDonalds", etc.

So, to get back to the original question, yes. Foreign adjectives always start
out as な adjectives. This is a clear rule in Japanese dating from the days of
strong Chinese influence. Even when the borrowed word actually ends in an -i
sound (e.g. ファジー, セクシー), it is still treated as a な adjective when it first
arrives in Japanese. But, once they are in the language, they _can_ be broken
down and then reborn as -i adjectives, a la グロい.

The interesting issue, I think, is: how "real" are these 二世 -i adjectives? On
one end of the scale, I think that エロい and グロい are completely unremarkable now
in colloquial Japanese. No-one thinks of them as wordplay. At the other end of
the scale, I have heard things like セクシくない, but _only_ as a joke. Treating
セクシー is if it were セクシい, an -i adjective, even though both speaker and
listener know that it is not, is unexpected and therefore amusing. Sort of
like how in English we might say "You think that's amazing? I can show you
something even amazinger!" even though we know that "amazing" doesn't take the
"-er" ending.

(Tangent: Note that セクシい is structurally different from グロい: instead of taking
the first two morae and making a new stem, it just reinterprets (intentionally
misinterprets) the existing sounds of the word セクシー. This may be one reason
why セクシい remains at gag level while グロい is already a regular word. Maybe the
_only_ way to create unremarkable adjectives/verbs from gairaigo in Japanese
is to create a two-mora stem and build on that, and any other method will
always remain at the humorous level. I haven't looked into this too deeply. It
would be especially interesting to look at perceptions of these words among
people born before and after they were created.)
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answer