Japanese Word for Zombie?

[Pandora]

The other day, I was playing Resident Evil and talking online to a friend who is also learning Japanese. I was discussing that I was playing Resident Evil, but partway through my thought process, I realized I did not know the Japanese word for "zombie". I checked my dictionary, but it wasn't in there. So I was curious as to what it would be? Or is it simply "zombie" sounded out through katakana?

 

[Angel Valis]

I believe it's just "zombie" using Japanese sounds, so zonbi.

If you listen to the Japanese version of the "Plants vs. Zombies" theme song, you hear them say "zonbi da, zonbi da, zonbi da".

Of course syllabic n sounds mostly like an m before b sounds, so it's really similar to the English pronunciation other than the o sound.

[EDIT:] Yeah WWWJDIC confirms zonbi. Also: I apparently love the edit button lol.

 

[Pandora]

Ah, I thought it might be, but I wasn't sure. I have the English version of "Plants Vs. Zombies"! (A little off-topic now) Can it be switched over to Japanese in settings, or would I have to buy the Japanese version separate?

 

[Angel Valis]

I'm not sure, but I know if you look on Youtube, you should be able to find the Japanese version of the song; that's where I heard it when I was looking up ways to farm money lol.

 

[Pandora]

Alright then! どうもありがとうございます!

 

[Angel Valis]

Don't mention it.ﾂ
いいえ、どういたしまして。

 

[Glenn]

A tip for the future when you can't find a word in a dictionary: go to the English Wikipedia page, and then see if it has a Japanese page. If it does, you've got your answer. In this case, it does: ゾンビ.

 

[Pandora]

I never thought about Wikipedia. Thank you!

 

[ikuyadas]

I like to see Bladeforum and found this word frequently,
but it was out of my thought what I have imagined from imported movies.
I think there are no words what is exactly same as "Zombie" except imported name,
that means not only a physically dead person, rotten but moves with cursed,
but also indication of dying living people and around the end of the days.

Japanese have a ghost but in most case it doesn't have any materials,
that can attack live person but many example is described as a curse.
Physical injury is a part of fantasy/myth monsters, not of dead person,
so Japanese "livind-dead" category is slightly different from US I think.
Of course the word "Zombie" is not used so usually in news headlines,
and I didn't know that was used for estimated enemy with city survivals.

Maybe it is general for gamers, and famous from horror movies in Japan,
but Japanese doesn't bury deads but burns to bone in funerals generally,
so "generate from tombs" image is not so natural from their customs.
Dead/guilty? people is considered to be sent to hells as a soul immediately,
and probably re-incarnation theory doesn't allow to store them in tombs.

 

[Toritoribe]

Japanese doesn't bury deads but burns to bone in funerals generally,
so "generate from tombs" image is not so natural from their customs.

Cremation widely spread in Japan after Meiji Restoration , especially since the beginning of Showa Priod. In other words, burial was common in Japan until 80 years or so before.

昭和初期の頃まで土葬は、火葬場が現在のようにまだ整備されていなかったこともあり、一般的に行われていた埋葬形態だった。

土葬 - Wikipedia

So the custum of burial or cremation doesn't explain the reason why zombie didn't exist in Japan even in Edo period .;-)

 

[ikuyadas]

Cremation widely spread in Japan after Meiji Restoration, especially since the beginning of Showa Priod. In other words, burial was common in Japan until 80 years or so before.
So the custum of burial or cremation doesn't explain the reason why zombie didn't exist in Japan even in Edo period.;-)

Thanks for the link. That's true and some village is still burying deads.
I wonder why Japanese couldn't imagine to move rotten corpse following to burial,
and then my point is that Japanese don't have a religious legend of Apocalypse.
Several waves of nihilism didn't create such a mass event of revenge to the future,
and they couldn't hope totally destructive judgement of the world to help themselves.

My timeline was current, from imported time to now about this issue,
and my interest is if we have a word that can perform as "Zombie" in US.
It is difficult for me to understand why "Zombie Attack" is so common at there,
why biological/infectious specs are so needed to attach with dead people,
why this word can include living person in generally speaking,
and what word is suitable in Japanese for these multiple meanings.

Many Japanese will imagine "Zombie" word from games and movies,
that is only fever and fashion that is lacking cultural basis like a Gothic Lolita.
They have poor background to this, for example like lol kanji tatoo in US,
so they can only reflect katakana-word "ﾆ綻ﾆ停?愴池" without their own roots.

If we try to find a reference from "Japanese living-deads list",
probably it is not easy to find proper word such as "幽霊", "悪霊", "生霊", "怨霊" etc.
Also we might avoid to imagine such creatures recently,
because we have a real history of Hiroshima under nuclear blast.