ビール

Dutch bier is the main source form usually cited for Japanese ビール, with German Bier reinforcing the same European spelling and sound. In Edo-period Nagasaki, the Dutch trading post at Dejima operated from 1641 to 1859, and Rangaku vocabulary brought many European goods and science terms into Japanese. The kanji spelling 麦酒, literally barley liquor, later supplied a written label. The borrowing moved from foreign drink to domestic industry in the late Edo and Meiji periods. Kawamoto Kōmin is often linked with an 1853 beer-brewing experiment based on Dutch learning. In Yokohama, William Copeland opened Spring Valley Brewery in 1870, and Sapporo's Kaitakushi Brewery began in 1876. ビール then became the normal Japanese name for beer in shops, bars, and advertising. Present Japanese uses ビール as a general beverage word: 生ビール, 瓶ビール, and 缶ビール are draft, bottled, and canned beer. It also sits beside tax and product terms such as 発泡酒 and 第三のビール, which are not ordinary English categories. The spelling is closer to Dutch or German bier than English beer, and Japanese counts it with 杯 or 本. Example: ビールを二本買った.