Karaoke is Japanese, borrowed in 1979, and it is half English already. The word is kara, "empty," plus oke, which is a clipped form of okesutora — which is the English word orchestra, rendered into Japanese sound patterns and then cut short. So karaoke means "empty orchestra," and the second half of it is a word that left English, was reshaped by a language with no consonant clusters, and came home unrecognisable.
That reshaping is the most useful thing about Japanese borrowings for anyone reading spellings. Japanese syllables are simple and open, so anything passing through the language comes out in even consonant-vowel beats: tsunami, sushi, futon, karaoke. English words that go into Japanese and come back — like this one — are the clearest demonstration, because you can hear exactly what the journey did to them.
karaoke (n.) 1979, Japanese, from kara "empty" + oke "orchestra," the latter a shortened form of okesutora , which is English orchestra rendered into Japanese. also from 1979
karaoke came in through Later and wider borrowings, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| no consonant clusters, every syllable open | Japanese: write it exactly as it soundstsunami, sushi, karaoke, futon |
What gives it away on the page
| no consonant clusters, every syllable open | Japanese.tsunami, sushi, karaoke, futon, tycoon |
Later and wider borrowings in the spelling guide · guess another word's family