Kanji
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2024) |
Kanji | |
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Logographic
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Time period | 5th century AD – present |
Direction | Vertical right-to-left, left-to-right |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Hani (500), Han (Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja) |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Han |
Kanji (漢字, Japanese pronunciation:
The term kanji in Japanese literally means "
Although some characters, as used in Japanese and Chinese, have similar meanings and pronunciations, others have meanings or pronunciations that are unique to one language or the other. For example,
Japanese writing |
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Components |
Uses |
Transliteration |
History
The earliest Japanese documents were probably written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at the
In ancient times, paper was so rare that people wrote kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of wood, called mokkan (木簡). These wooden boards were used for communication between government offices, tags for goods transported between various countries, and the practice of writing. The oldest written kanji in Japan discovered so far were written in ink on wood as a wooden strip dated to the 7th century, a record of trading for cloth and salt.
The Japanese language had no written form at the time Chinese characters were introduced, and texts were written and read only in Chinese. Later, during the
Chinese characters also came to be used to write texts in the vernacular
In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write certain words or parts of words (usually
Orthographic reform and lists of kanji
Since ancient times, there has been a strong opinion in Japan that kanji is the orthodox form of writing, but there were also people who argued against it.[13] Kamo no Mabuchi, a scholar of the Edo period, criticized the large number of characters in kanji. He also appreciated the small number of characters in kana characters and argued for the limitation of kanji.
After the Meiji Restoration and as Japan entered an era of active exchange with foreign countries, the need for script reform in Japan began to be called for. Some scholars argued for the abolition of kanji and the writing of Japanese using only kana or Latin characters. However, these views were not so widespread.
However, the need to limit the number of kanji characters was understood, and in May 1923, the Japanese government announced 1,962 kanji characters for regular use. In 1940, the Japanese Army decided on the "Table of Restricted Kanji for Weapons Names" (兵器名称用制限漢字表, heiki meishō yō seigen kanji hyō) which limited the number of kanji that could be used for weapons names to 1,235. In 1942, the National Language Council announced the "Standard Kanji Table" (標準漢字表, hyōjun kanji-hyō) with a total of 2,528 characters, showing the standard for kanji used by ministries and agencies and in general society.[14]
In 1946, after
The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. Some characters were given simplified glyphs, called shinjitai (新字体). Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged.
These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used; these are known as
Kyōiku kanji
The kyōiku kanji (教育漢字, lit. "education kanji") are the 1,026 first kanji characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, from first grade to sixth grade. The grade-level breakdown is known as the gakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō (
Jōyō kanji
The jōyō kanji (常用漢字, regular-use kanji) are 2,136 characters consisting of all the Kyōiku kanji, plus 1,110 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school.[15] In publishing, characters outside this category are often given furigana. The jōyō kanji were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as the tōyō kanji (当用漢字, general-use kanji), introduced in 1946. Originally numbering 1,945 characters, the jōyō kanji list was expanded to 2,136 in 2010. Some of the new characters were previously Jinmeiyō kanji; some are used to write prefecture names: 阪, 熊, 奈, 岡, 鹿, 梨, 阜, 埼, 茨, 栃 and 媛.
Jinmeiyō kanji
As of September 25, 2017, the jinmeiyō kanji (人名用漢字, kanji for use in personal names) consists of 863 characters. Kanji on this list are mostly used in people's names and some are traditional variants of jōyō kanji. There were only 92 kanji in the original list published in 1952, but new additions have been made frequently. Sometimes the term jinmeiyō kanji refers to all 2,999 kanji from both the jōyō and jinmeiyō lists combined.
Hyōgai kanji
Hyōgai kanji (表外漢字, "unlisted characters") are any kanji not contained in the jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji lists. These are generally written using traditional characters, but extended shinjitai forms exist.
Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji
The Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji and kana define character code-points for each kanji and kana, as well as other forms of writing such as the Latin alphabet, Cyrillic script, Greek alphabet, Arabic numerals, etc. for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are:
- JIS X 0208,[16] the most recent version of the main standard. It has 6,355 kanji.
- JIS X 0212,[17] a supplementary standard containing a further 5,801 kanji. This standard is rarely used, mainly because the common Shift JIS encoding system could not use it. This standard is effectively obsolete.
- JIS X 0213,[18] a further revision which extended the JIS X 0208 set with 3,695 additional kanji, of which 2,743 (all but 952) were in JIS X 0212. The standard is in part designed to be compatible with Shift JIS encoding.
- JIS X 0221:1995, the Japanese version of the ISO 10646/Unicode standard.
Gaiji
Gaiji (外字, literally "external characters") are kanji that are not represented in existing Japanese encoding systems. These include variant forms of common kanji that need to be represented alongside the more conventional glyph in reference works and can include non-kanji symbols as well.
Gaiji can be either user-defined characters, system-specific characters or third-party add-on products.[19] Both are a problem for information interchange, as the code point used to represent an external character will not be consistent from one computer or operating system to another.
Gaiji were nominally prohibited in JIS X 0208-1997 where the available number of code-points was reduced to only 940.[20] JIS X 0213-2000 used the entire range of code-points previously allocated to gaiji, making them completely unusable. Most desktop and mobile systems have moved to Unicode negating the need for gaiji for most users. Nevertheless, they persist today in Japan's three major mobile phone information portals, where they are used for emoji (pictorial characters).
technology allows the creation of customized gaiji.The Text Encoding Initiative uses a ⟨g⟩ element to encode any non-standard character or glyph, including gaiji.[23] (The g stands for gaiji.)[24]
Total number of kanji
There is no definitive count of kanji characters, just as there is none of Chinese characters generally. The Dai Kan-Wa Jiten, which is considered to be comprehensive in Japan, contains about 50,000 characters. The Zhonghua Zihai, published in 1994 in China, contains about 85,000 characters, but the majority of them are not in common use in any country, and many are obscure variants or archaic forms.[25][26][27]
A list of 2,136 jōyō kanji (常用漢字) is regarded as necessary for functional literacy in Japanese. Approximately a thousand more characters are commonly used and readily understood by the majority in Japan and a few thousand more find occasional use, particularly in specialized fields of study but those may be obscure to most out of context. A total of 13,108 characters can be encoded in various Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji.
Readings
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Borrowing typology of Han characters | ||
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Meaning | Pronunciation | |
a) semantic on | L1 | L1 |
b) semantic kun | L1 | L2 |
c) phonetic on | — | L1 |
d) phonetic kun | — | L2 |
*With L1 representing the language borrowed from (Chinese) and L2 representing the borrowing language (Japanese).[28] |
Individual kanji may be used to write one or more different words or
Kanji readings are categorized as either on'yomi (音読み, literally "sound reading", from Chinese) or kun'yomi (訓読み, literally "meaning reading", native Japanese), and most characters have at least two readings—at least one of each.
However, some characters have only a single reading, such as kiku (菊, "chrysanthemum", an on-reading) or iwashi (鰯, "sardine", a kun-reading); kun-only are common for Japanese-coined kanji (kokuji).
Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings; the most complex common example is 生, which is read as sei, shō, nama, ki, o-u, i-kiru, i-kasu, i-keru, u-mu, u-mareru, ha-eru, and ha-yasu, totaling eight basic readings (the first two are on, while the rest are kun), or 12 if related verbs are counted as distinct.
On'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading)
The on'yomi (音読み, [oɰ̃jomi], lit. "sound(-based) reading"), the Sino-Japanese reading, is the modern descendant of the Japanese approximation of the base Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced. It was often previously referred to as translation reading, as it was recreated readings of the Chinese pronunciation but was not the Chinese pronunciation or reading itself, similar to the English pronunciation of Latin loanwords. There also exist kanji created by the Japanese and given an on'yomi reading despite not being a Chinese-derived or a Chinese-originating character. Some kanji were introduced from different parts of China at different times, and so have multiple on'yomi, and often multiple meanings. Kanji invented in Japan (kokuji) would not normally be expected to have on'yomi, but there are exceptions, such as the character 働 "to work", which has the kun'yomi "hatara(ku)" and the on'yomi "dō", and 腺 "gland", which has only the on'yomi "sen"—in both cases these come from the on'yomi of the phonetic component, respectively 動 "dō" and 泉 "sen".
Kun'yomi (native reading)
The kun'yomi (訓読み,
Ateji
Ateji (当て字, 宛字 or あてじ) are characters used only for their sounds. In this case, pronunciation is still based on a standard reading, or used only for meaning (broadly a form of ateji, narrowly jukujikun). Therefore, only the full compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are also special cases where the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or traditional reading.
The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree in
Gairaigo
Longer readings exist for non-Jōyō characters and non-kanji symbols, where a long
Mixed readings
There are many kanji compounds that use a mixture of on'yomi and kun'yomi, known as jūbako (重箱, multi-layered food box) or yutō (湯桶, hot liquid pail) words (depending on the order), which are themselves examples of this kind of compound (they are autological words): the first character of jūbako is read using on'yomi, the second kun'yomi (on-kun, 重箱読み). It is the other way around with yu-tō (kun-on, 湯桶読み).
Formally, these are referred to as jūbako-yomi (重箱読み, jūbako reading) and yutō-yomi (湯桶読み, yutō reading). In both these words, the on'yomi has a long vowel; long vowels in Japanese generally are derived from sound changes common to loans from Chinese, hence distinctive of on'yomi. These are the Japanese form of hybrid words. Other examples include basho (場所, "place", kun-on, 湯桶読み), kin'iro (金色, "golden", on-kun, 重箱読み) and aikidō (合気道, the martial art Aikido", kun-on-on, 湯桶読み).
Ateji often use mixed readings. For instance, the city of Sapporo (サッポロ), whose name derives from the Ainu language and has no meaning in Japanese, is written with the on-kun compound 札幌 (which includes sokuon as if it were a purely on compound).
Special readings
Gikun (義訓) and jukujikun (熟字訓) are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individual on'yomi or kun'yomi. From the point of view of the character, rather than the word, this is known as a 難訓 (nankun, "difficult reading"), and these are listed in kanji dictionaries under the entry for the character.
Gikun are other readings assigned to a character instead of its standard readings. An example is reading 寒 (meaning "cold") as fuyu ("winter") rather than the standard readings samu or kan, and instead of the usual spelling for fuyu of 冬. Another example is using 煙草 (lit. "smoke grass") with the reading tabako ("tobacco") rather than the otherwise-expected readings of *kemuri-gusa or *ensō. Some of these, such as for tabako, have become lexicalized, but in many cases this kind of use is typically non-standard and employed in specific contexts by individual writers. Aided with furigana, gikun could be used to convey complex literary or poetic effect (especially if the readings contradict the kanji), or clarification if the referent may not be obvious.
Jukujikun are when the standard kanji for a word are related to the meaning, but not the sound. The word is pronounced as a whole, not corresponding to sounds of individual kanji. For example, 今朝 ("this morning") is jukujikun. This word is not read as *ima'asa, the expected kun'yomi of the characters, and only infrequently as konchō, the on'yomi of the characters. The most common reading is kesa, a native bisyllabic Japanese word that may be seen as a single morpheme, or as a compound of ke (“this”, as in kefu, the older reading for 今日, “today”), and asa, “morning”.[30] Likewise, 今日 ("today") is also jukujikun, usually read with the native reading kyō; its on'yomi, konnichi, does occur in certain words and expressions, especially in the broader sense "nowadays" or "current", such as 今日的 ("present-day"), although in the phrase konnichi wa ("good day"), konnichi is typically spelled wholly with hiragana rather than with the kanji 今日.
Jukujikun are primarily used for some native Japanese words, such as
Sometimes, jukujikun can even have more kanji than there are syllables, examples being kera (啄木鳥, “woodpecker”), gumi (胡頽子, “silver berry, oleaster”),[31] and Hozumi (八月朔日, a surname).[32] This phenomenon is observed in animal names that are shortened and used as suffixes for zoological compound names, for example when 黄金虫, normally read as koganemushi, is shortened to kogane in 黒黄金虫 kurokogane, although zoological names are commonly spelled with katakana rather than with kanji. Outside zoology, this type of shortening only occurs on a handful of words, for example 大元帥 daigen(sui), or the historical male name suffix 右衛門 -emon, which was shortened from the word uemon.
The kanji compound for jukujikun is often idiosyncratic and created for the word, and there is no corresponding Chinese word with that spelling. In other cases, a kanji compound for an existing Chinese word is reused, where the Chinese word and on'yomi may or may not be used in Japanese. For example,
The underlying word for jukujikun is a native Japanese word or foreign borrowing, which either does not have an existing kanji spelling (either kun'yomi or ateji) or for which a new kanji spelling is produced. Most often the word is a noun, which may be a simple noun (not a compound or derived from a verb), or may be a verb form or a fusional pronunciation. For example, the word 相撲 (sumō, “sumo”) is originally from the verb 争う (sumau, “to vie, to compete”), while 今日 (kyō, “today”) is fusional (from older ke, “this” + fu, “day”).
In rare cases, jukujikun is also applied to inflectional words (verbs and adjectives), in which case there is frequently a corresponding Chinese word. The most common example of an inflectional jukujikun is the adjective 可愛い (kawai-i, “cute”), originally kawafayu-i; the word (可愛) is used in Chinese, but the corresponding on'yomi is not used in Japanese. By contrast, "appropriate" can be either 相応しい (fusawa-shii, as jukujikun) or 相応 (sōō, as on'yomi). Which reading to use can be discerned by the presence or absence of the -shii ending (okurigana). A common example of a verb with jukujikun is 流行る (haya-ru, “to spread, to be in vogue”), corresponding to on'yomi 流行 (ryūkō). A sample jukujikun deverbal (noun derived from a verb form) is 強請 (yusuri, “extortion”), from 強請る (yusu-ru, “to extort”), spelling from 強請 (kyōsei, “extortion”). Note that there are also compound verbs and, less commonly, compound adjectives, and while these may have multiple kanji without intervening characters, they are read using the usual kun'yomi. Examples include 面白い (omo-shiro-i, “interesting”, literally “face + white”) and 狡賢い (zuru-gashiko-i, “sly”, lit. “cunning, crafty + clever, smart”).
Typographically, the furigana for jukujikun are often written so they are centered across the entire word, or for inflectional words over the entire root—corresponding to the reading being related to the entire word—rather than each part of the word being centered over its corresponding character, as is often done for the usual phono-semantic readings.
Broadly speaking, jukujikun can be considered a form of poems.
Single character gairaigo
In some rare cases, an individual kanji has a reading that is borrowed from a modern foreign language (
Nanori
Some kanji also have lesser-known readings called nanori (名乗り), which are mostly used for names (often given names) and, in general, are closely related to the kun'yomi. Place names sometimes also use nanori or, occasionally, unique readings not found elsewhere.
When to use which reading
Although there are general rules for when to use on'yomi and when to use kun'yomi, the language is littered with exceptions, and it is not always possible for even a native speaker to know how to read a character without prior knowledge (this is especially true for names, both of people and places); further, a given character may have multiple kun'yomi or on'yomi. When reading Japanese, one primarily recognizes words (multiple characters and okurigana) and their readings rather than individual characters and only guesses the readings of characters when trying to "sound out" an unrecognized word.
Homographs exist, which can sometimes be deduced from context, and sometimes cannot, requiring a glossary. For example, 今日 may be read either as kyō "today (informal)" (special fused reading for native word) or as konnichi "these days (formal)" (on'yomi); in formal writing, this will generally be read as konnichi. Multiple readings are common, such as in 豚汁 "pork soup", which is commonly pronounced both as ton-jiru (mixed on-kun) and buta-jiru (kun-kun), with ton being somewhat more common nationally. Inconsistencies abound—for example, 牛肉 gyū-niku "beef" and 羊肉 yō-niku "mutton" have on-on readings, but 豚肉 buta-niku "pork" and 鶏肉 tori-niku "poultry" have kun-on readings.
The main guideline is that a single kanji followed by okurigana (hiragana characters that are part of the word)—as used in native verbs and adjectives—always indicates kun'yomi, while kanji compounds (kango) usually use on'yomi, which is usually kan-on; however, other on'yomi are also common, and kun'yomi are also commonly used in kango. For a kanji in isolation without okurigana, it is typically read using their kun'yomi, though there are numerous exceptions. For example, 鉄 "iron" is usually read with the on'yomi tetsu rather than the kun'yomi kurogane. Chinese on'yomi which are not the common kan-on reading are a frequent cause of difficulty or mistakes when encountering unfamiliar words or for inexperienced readers, though skilled natives will recognize the word; a good example is ge-doku (解毒, detoxification, anti-poison) (go-on), where (解) is usually instead read as kai.
Kanji occurring in compounds (multi-kanji words) (熟語, jukugo) are generally read using on'yomi, especially for four-character compounds (yojijukugo). Though again, exceptions abound, for example, 情報 jōhō "information", 学校 gakkō "school", and 新幹線 shinkansen "bullet train" all follow this pattern. This isolated kanji versus compound distinction gives words for similar concepts completely different pronunciations. 北 "north" and 東 "east" use the kun'yomi kita and higashi, being stand-alone characters, but 北東 "northeast", as a compound, uses the on'yomi hokutō. This is further complicated by the fact that many kanji have more than one on'yomi: 生 is read as sei in 先生 sensei "teacher" but as shō in 一生 isshō "one's whole life". Meaning can also be an important indicator of reading; 易 is read i when it means "simple", but as eki when it means "divination", both being on'yomi for this character.
These rules of thumb have many exceptions. Kun'yomi compound words are not as numerous as those with on'yomi, but neither are they rare. Examples include 手紙 tegami "letter", 日傘 higasa "parasol", and the famous 神風 kamikaze "divine wind". Such compounds may also have okurigana, such as 空揚げ (also written 唐揚げ) karaage "Chinese-style fried chicken" and 折り紙 origami, although many of these can also be written with the okurigana omitted (for example, 空揚 or 折紙). In general, compounds coined in Japan using Japanese roots will be read in kun'yomi while those imported from China will be read in on'yomi.
Similarly, some on'yomi characters can also be used as words in isolation: 愛 ai "love", 禅 Zen, 点 ten "mark, dot". Most of these cases involve kanji that have no kun'yomi, so there can be no confusion, although exceptions do occur. Alone 金 may be read as kin "gold" or as kane "money, metal"; only context can determine the writer's intended reading and meaning.
Multiple readings have given rise to a number of homographs, in some cases having different meanings depending on how they are read. One example is 上手, which can be read in three different ways: jōzu (skilled), uwate (upper part), or kamite (stage left/house right). In addition, 上手い has the reading umai (skilled). More subtly, 明日 has three different readings, all meaning "tomorrow": ashita (casual), asu (polite), and myōnichi (formal). Furigana (reading glosses) is often used to clarify any potential ambiguities.
Conversely, in some cases homophonous terms may be distinguished in writing by different characters, but not so distinguished in speech, and hence potentially confusing. In some cases when it is important to distinguish these in speech, the reading of a relevant character may be changed. For example, 私立 (privately established, esp. school) and 市立 (city established) are both normally pronounced shi-ritsu; in speech these may be distinguished by the alternative pronunciations watakushi-ritsu and ichi-ritsu. More informally, in legal jargon 前文 "preamble" and 全文 "full text" are both pronounced zen-bun, so 前文 may be pronounced mae-bun for clarity, as in "Have you memorized the preamble [not 'whole text'] of the constitution?". As in these examples, this is primarily using a kun'yomi for one character in a normally on'yomi term.
As stated above, jūbako and yutō readings are also not uncommon. Indeed, all four combinations of reading are possible: on-on, kun-kun, kun-on and on-kun.
Legalese
Certain words take different readings depending on whether the context concerns legal matters or not. For example:
Word | Common reading | Legalese reading |
---|---|---|
懈怠 ("negligence")[33] | ketai | kaitai |
競売 ("auction")[33] | kyōbai | keibai |
兄弟姉妹 ("siblings") | kyōdai shimai | keitei shimai |
境界 ("metes and bounds") | kyōkai | keikai |
競落 ("acquisition at an auction")[33] | kyōraku | keiraku |
遺言 ("will")[33] | yuigon | igon |
Ambiguous readings
In some instances where even context cannot easily provide clarity for homophones, alternative readings or mixed readings can be used instead of regular readings to avoid ambiguity. For example:
Ambiguous reading | Disambiguated readings |
---|---|
baishun | baishun (売春, "selling sex", on)
kaishun (買春, "buying sex", yutō)[34] |
itoko | jūkeitei (従兄弟, "male cousin", on)
jūshimai (従姉妹, "female cousin", on) jūkei (従兄, "older male cousin", on) jūshi (従姉, "older female cousin", on) jūtei (従弟, "younger male cousin", on) jūmai (従妹, "younger female cousin", on) |
jiten | kotobaten (辞典, "word dictionary", yutō)[34]
kototen (事典, "encyclopedia", yutō)[34][33] mojiten (字典, "character dictionary", irregular, from moji (文字, "character"))[34] |
kagaku | kagaku (科学, "science", on) |
karyō | ayamachiryō (過料, "administrative fine", yutō)[34][33] |
kōshin | Kinoesaru (甲申, "Greater-Wood-Monkey year", kun)
Kinoetatsu (甲辰, "Greater-Wood-Dragon year", kun) Kanoesaru (庚申, "Greater-Fire-Monkey year", kun) Kanoetatsu (庚辰, "Greater-Fire-Dragon year", kun) |
Shin | Hatashin (秦, "Qin", irregular, from the alternative reading Hata used as a family name)[34][33]
Susumushin (晋, "Jin", irregular, from the alternative reading Susumu used as a personal name)[34][33] |
shiritsu | ichiritsu (市立, "municipal", yutō)[34][33] |
There are also cases where the words are technically heterophones, but they have similar meanings and pronunciations, therefore liable to mishearing and misunderstanding.
Word with an alterantive reading | Word that may be confused with |
---|---|
gishu (技手, "assistant engineer", on), alternatively gite, jūbako[34][33] | gishi (技師, "engineer", on) |
shuchō (首長, "chief", on), alternatively kubichō, yutō[35][36] | shichō (市長, "mayor", on) |
Place names
Several famous place names, including those of Japan itself (日本 Nihon or sometimes Nippon), those of some cities such as Tokyo (東京 Tōkyō) and Kyoto (京都 Kyōto), and those of the main islands Honshu (本州 Honshū), Kyushu (九州 Kyūshū), Shikoku (四国 Shikoku), and Hokkaido (北海道 Hokkaidō) are read with on'yomi; however, the majority of Japanese place names are read with kun'yomi: 大阪 Ōsaka, 青森 Aomori, 箱根 Hakone. Names often use characters and readings that are not in common use outside of names. When characters are used as abbreviations of place names, their reading may not match that in the original. The Osaka (大阪) and Kobe (神戸) baseball team, the Hanshin (阪神) Tigers, take their name from the on'yomi of the second kanji of Ōsaka and the first of Kōbe. The name of the Keisei (京成) railway line—linking Tokyo (東京) and Narita (成田)—is formed similarly, although the reading of 京 from 東京 is kei, despite kyō already being an on'yomi in the word Tōkyō.
Chinese place names and
Today, Chinese names that are not well known in Japan are often spelled in katakana instead, in a form much more closely approximating the native Chinese pronunciation. Alternatively, they may be written in kanji with katakana furigana. Many such cities have names that come from non-Chinese languages like Mongolian or Manchu. Examples of such not-well-known Chinese names include:
English name | Japanese name | ||
---|---|---|---|
Rōmaji | Katakana | Kanji | |
Harbin | Harubin | ハルビン | 哈爾浜 |
Ürümqi | Urumuchi | ウルムチ | 烏魯木斉 |
Qiqihar | Chichiharu | チチハル | 斉斉哈爾 |
Lhasa | Rasa | ラサ | 拉薩 |
Internationally renowned Chinese-named cities tend to imitate the older English pronunciations of their names, regardless of the kanji's on'yomi or the Mandarin or Cantonese pronunciation, and can be written in either katakana or kanji. Examples include:
English name | Mandarin name (pinyin) | Hokkien name (Tâi-lô) | Cantonese name (Yale) | Japanese name | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kanji | Katakana | Rōmaji | ||||
Hong Kong | Xianggang | Hiong-káng / Hiang-káng | Hēung Góng | 香港 | ホンコン | Honkon |
Macao/Macau | Ao'men | ò-mn̂g / ò-bûn | Ou Mùhn | 澳門 | マカオ | Makao |
Shanghai | Shanghai | Siōng-hái / Siāng-hái | Seuhng Hói | 上海 | シャンハイ | Shanhai |
Beijing/Peking | Beijing | Pak-kiann | Bāk Gīng | 北京 | ペキン | Pekin |
Nanjing/Nanking | Nanjing | Lâm-kiann | Nàahm Gīng | 南京 | ナンキン | Nankin |
Taipei | Taibei | Tâi-pak | Tòih Bāk | 台北 | タイペイ / タイホク | Taipei / Taihoku |
Kaohsiung | Gaoxiong / Dagou | Ko-hiông | Gōu Hùhng | 高雄 / 打狗 | カオシュン / タカオ | Kaoshun / Takao |
Notes:
- Guangzhou, the city, is pronounced Kōshū, while Guangdong, its province, is pronounced Kanton, not Kōtō (in this case, opting for a Tō-on reading rather than the usual Kan-on reading).
- Kaohsiung was originally pronounced Takao (or similar) in Hokkien and Japanese. It received this written name (kanji/Chinese) from Japanese, and later its spoken Mandarin name from the corresponding characters. The English name "Kaohsiung" derived from its Mandarin pronunciation. Today it is pronounced either カオシュン or タカオ in Japanese.
- Taipei is generally pronounced たいほく in Japanese.
In some cases the same kanji can appear in a given word with different readings. Normally this occurs when a character is duplicated and the reading of the second character has voicing (rendaku), as in 人人 hito-bito "people" (more often written with the iteration mark as 人々), but in rare cases the readings can be unrelated, as in tobi-haneru (跳び跳ねる, "hop around", more often written 飛び跳ねる).
Pronunciation assistance
Because of the ambiguities involved, kanji sometimes have their pronunciation for the given context spelled out in ruby characters known as furigana, (small kana written above or to the right of the character) or kumimoji (small kana written in-line after the character). This is especially true in texts for children or foreign learners. It is also used in newspapers and manga for rare or unusual readings, or for situations like the first time a character's name is given, and for characters not included in the officially recognized set of essential kanji. Works of fiction sometimes use furigana to create new "words" by giving normal kanji non-standard readings, or to attach a foreign word rendered in katakana as the reading for a kanji or kanji compound of the same or similar meaning.
Spelling words
Conversely, specifying a given kanji, or spelling out a kanji word—whether the pronunciation is known or not—can be complicated, due to the fact that there is not a commonly used standard way to refer to individual kanji (one does not refer to "kanji #237"), and that a given reading does not map to a single kanji—indeed there are many homophonous words, not simply individual characters, particularly for kango (with on'yomi). It is easiest to write the word out—either on paper or tracing it in the air—or look it up (given the pronunciation) in a dictionary, particularly an electronic dictionary; when this is not possible, such as when speaking over the phone or writing implements are not available (and tracing in air is too complicated), various techniques can be used. These include giving kun'yomi for characters—these are often unique—using a well-known word with the same character (and preferably the same pronunciation and meaning), and describing the character via its components. For example, one may explain how to spell the word kōshinryō (香辛料, spice) via the words kao-ri (香り, fragrance), kara-i (辛い, spicy), and in-ryō (飲料, beverage)—the first two use the kun'yomi, the third is a well-known compound—saying "kaori, karai, ryō as in inryō."
Dictionaries
In dictionaries, both words and individual characters have readings glossed, via various conventions. Native words and Sino-Japanese vocabulary are glossed in hiragana (for both kun and on readings), while borrowings (gairaigo)—including modern borrowings from Chinese—are glossed in katakana; this is the standard writing convention also used in furigana. By contrast, readings for individual characters are conventionally written in katakana for on readings, and hiragana for kun readings. Kun readings may further have a separator to indicate which characters are okurigana, and which are considered readings of the character itself. For example, in the entry for 食, the reading corresponding to the basic verb eat (食べる, taberu) may be written as た.べる (ta.beru), to indicate that ta is the reading of the character itself. Further,
Local developments and divergences from Chinese
Since kanji are essentially Chinese
- the use of characters created in Japan,
- characters that have been given different meanings in Japanese, and
- post-World War II simplifications (shinjitai) of the character.
Likewise, the process of character simplification in mainland China since the 1950s has resulted in the fact that Japanese speakers who have not studied Chinese may not recognize some simplified characters.
Kokuji
In Japanese, Kokuji (
Kokkun
In addition to kokuji, there are kanji that have been given meanings in Japanese that are different from their original Chinese meanings. These are not considered kokuji but are instead called kokkun (国訓) and include characters such as the following:
Char. | Japanese | Chinese | ||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reading | Meaning | Pinyin | Meaning | |||||||||||||||||||||
藤 | fuji | wisteria | téng | rattan, cane, vine | ||||||||||||||||||||
沖 | oki | offing, offshore | chōng | rinse, minor river (Cantonese) | ||||||||||||||||||||
椿 | tsubaki | Camellia japonica | chūn | Toona spp. | ||||||||||||||||||||
鮎 | ayu | sweetfish |
nián | catfish (rare, usually written 鯰) | ||||||||||||||||||||
咲 | saki | blossom | xiào | smile (rare, usually written 笑) |
Types of kanji by category
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2022) |
Shōkei moji (象形文字)
Shōkei (Mandarin: xiàngxíng) characters are
Shiji moji (指事文字)
Shiji (Mandarin: zhǐshì) characters are
Kaii moji (会意文字)
Kaii (Mandarin: huìyì) characters are compound ideographs, often called "compound indicatives", "associative compounds", or just "ideographs". These are usually a combination of pictographs that combine semantically to present an overall meaning. An example of this type is 休 (rest) from 亻 (person radical) and 木 (tree). Another is the kokuji 峠 (mountain pass) made from 山 (mountain), 上 (up) and 下 (down). These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.
Keisei moji (形声文字)
Keisei (Mandarin: xíngshēng) characters are phono-semantic or
Tenchū moji (転注文字)
Tenchū (Mandarin: zhuǎnzhù) characters have variously been called "derivative characters", "derivative cognates", or translated as "mutually explanatory" or "mutually synonymous" characters; this is the most problematic of the six categories, as it is vaguely defined. It may refer to kanji where the meaning or application has become extended. For example, 楽 is used for 'music' and 'comfort, ease', with different pronunciations in Chinese reflected in the two different on'yomi, gaku 'music' and raku 'pleasure'.
Kasha moji (仮借文字)
Kasha (Mandarin: jiǎjiè) are rebuses, sometimes called "phonetic loans". The etymology of the characters follows one of the patterns above, but the present-day meaning is completely unrelated to this. A character was appropriated to represent a similar-sounding word. For example, 来 in ancient Chinese was originally a pictograph for "wheat". Its syllable was homophonous with the verb meaning "to come", and the character is used for that verb as a result, without any embellishing "meaning" element attached. The character for wheat 麦, originally meant "to come", being a keisei moji having 'foot' at the bottom for its meaning part and "wheat" at the top for sound. The two characters swapped meaning, so today the more common word has the simpler character. This borrowing of sounds has a very long history.
Related symbols
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2022) |
The iteration mark (々) is used to indicate that the preceding kanji is to be repeated, functioning similarly to a ditto mark in English. It is pronounced as though the kanji were written twice in a row, for example iroiro (色々, "various") and tokidoki (時々, "sometimes"). This mark also appears in personal and place names, as in the surname Sasaki (佐々木). This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji 仝, a variant of dō (同, "same").
Another abbreviated symbol is
The way how these symbols may be produced on a computer depends on the operating system. In macOS, typing じおくり will reveal the symbol 々 as well as ヽ, ゝ and ゞ. To produce 〻, type おどりじ. Under Windows, typing くりかえし will reveal some of these symbols, while in Google IME, おどりじ may be used.
Collation
Kanji, whose thousands of symbols defy ordering by conventions such as those used for the
Other kanji sorting methods, such as the SKIP system, have been devised by various authors.
Modern general-purpose
Kanji education
Japanese schoolchildren are expected to learn 1,026 basic kanji characters, the
Students studying Japanese as a foreign language are often required by a curriculum to acquire kanji without having first learned the vocabulary associated with them. Strategies for these learners vary from copying-based methods to
The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation provides the
See also
- Chinese influence on Japanese culture
- Braille kanji
- Hanja (Korean equivalent)
- Chữ Hán (Vietnamese equivalent)
- Han unification
- Chinese family of scripts
- Japanese script reform
- Japanese typefaces (shotai)
- Japanese writing system
- Kanji of the year
- List of kanji by stroke count
- Radical (Chinese character)
- Stroke order
- Table of kanji radicals
- Rōmaji– method of writing Japanese with the Latin alphabet
- Cangjie – legendary inventor of Chinese characters
References
Citations
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- ^ Tamaoka, K., Makioka, S., Sanders, S. & Verdonschot, R. G. (2017). "www.kanjidatabase.com: a new interactive online database for psychological and linguistic research on Japanese kanji and their compound words". Psychological Research 81, 696–708.
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- ^ Kuang-Hui Chiu, Chi-Ching Hsu (2006). Chinese Dilemmas : How Many Ideographs are Needed Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, National Taipei University
- ^ Shouhui Zhao, Dongbo Zhang, The Totality of Chinese Characters—A Digital Perspective Archived September 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
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Sources
- DeFrancis, John (1990). The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1068-6.
- Hadamitzky, W.; Spahn, M. (1981). Kanji and Kana. Boston: Tuttle.
- Hannas, William. C. (1997). Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1892-X.
- Kaiser, Stephen (1991). "Introduction to the Japanese Writing System". Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide. Tokyo: Kondansha International. ISBN 4-7700-1553-4.
- ISBN 0-415-30575-6.
- Morohashi, Tetsuji. 大漢和辞典 Dai Kan-Wa Jiten (Comprehensive Chinese–Japanese Dictionary) 1984–1986. Tokyo: Taishukan.
- Mitamura, Joyce Yumi; Mitamura, Yasuko Kosaka (1997). Let's Learn Kanji. Tokyo: Kondansha International. ISBN 4-7700-2068-6.
- ISBN 0-19-510166-9.
External links
- Jim Breen's WWWJDIC server used to find Kanji from English or romanized Japanese
- Change in Script Usage in Japanese: A Longitudinal Study of Japanese Government White Papers on Labor, discussion paper by Takako Tomoda in the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, August 19, 2005.
- Jisho—Online Japanese dictionary