Anime and Cartoons: Technically speaking, there is no difference

[Prince of Moles]

It doesn't really have a French origin.

The word anime in Japanese comes from animation in English.

But the English word animation is derived from Latin, animatus. And that word is also the basis for the French word.

So if you really want, you can say that anime is derived from Latin.

[janmurphy]

Originally Posted by tsuraramai

O-o; I've never heard animation in Japan referred to as "kaatuun" in casual speech... at least, outside of english class (though there is an annoying boyband by the name and they do have their own version of "Cartoon Network" ). Tom and Jerry's in the "Anime" section of the store and under "anime" on amazon.co.jp, rakuten, etc... Japanese friends reflect fondly on "Thundercats", Disney Features and "Bugs Bunny" as "anime"...

Honestly, the only time I've ever heard the word in casual speech or on television is in reference to "Cartoon Network". Give it a google: my yahoo Japan search on the word "カートゥーン" pulled up little more than Cartoon Network references.

So I think it's misleading to assume that the word "cartoon" in english is what most Japanese use to refer to animation in general (including what we think of as "anime")... it isn't.

An interesting definition:

カートゥーン(cartoon)は複数の芸術形式についての呼称であり、一つの語源から発展した複数の意味 を持っている。現代における狭義の用語カートゥーンは、アメリカやヨーロッパの一コマ漫画か、ユーモラスな 傾向を備えた子供向けのアニメーション作品を指し示す言葉である。
(from Japanese version of Wikipedia)

It seems the Japanese version of the word "cartoon" has the same "American" "European" glaze we apply, in reverse to the term "Anime"... it also seem to have the same "for children" implication

When I hear it used it IS by people that consider anime kids stuff. That connitation for it seems very right. I agree its not often used, but it is used. Maybe its just cause I was way out in the boonies. To this day I still speak a kind of 'redneck japanese' tis fun though. And most the people I knew like to sound 'english'

Its really amazing how many different stories people have for how this or that word came about isnt it? I care more about how we're using it now instead of where it came from, but we wouldnt have much to talk about then would we?

[OutPhase]

Originally Posted by Prince of Moles

So if you really want, you can say that anime is derived from Latin.

Crap! Why is it that every other thing for catagorizing is derived from Latin? It's always Latin at the bottom. It's like the friggin' suport beam for most languages on earth.

jpwong: You're thinking of the word "Jap", which is a racial slur.

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by Razer_2mb

Crap! Why is it that every other thing for catagorizing is derived from Latin? It's always Latin at the bottom. It's like the friggin' suport beam for most languages on earth.

Because the Roman Empire was the basis of Western language - other than Anglo-Saxon based words such as ox (and oxen), most modern day English was assimilated from the French from the Norman Conquest of 1066. And French, as well as other similar languages, have their roots in Latin.

[OutPhase]

Originally Posted by kj1980

Because the Roman Empire was the basis of Western language - other than Anglo-Saxon based words such as ox (and oxen), most modern day English was assimilated from the French from the Norman Conquest of 1066. And French, as well as other similar languages, have their roots in Latin.

[Prince of Moles]

lol that NBC reference was too freaking funny.

Anyway to add just a little bit to the above discussion.

English is a real mongrel language. Its roots are Germanic (like ox, as above) but it also has Scandinavian words (sky, window, etc) from when northern England was ruled by them, a ton of Latin/French loan words (most words that ends with -tion) from the Norman conquest, Greek words (a lot of scientific words, tele-, mega-, etc), Indian words from British colonial times (pajama plus a whole lot more that I don't really know), and some Japanese words from US occupation of and interaction with Japan (Tsunami, Honcho, Tycoon, etc).

For English speakers, however, most of the loan words come from within the greater Indo-European linguistic family.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages