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This article is about the Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. For other uses, see Kanji (disambiguation).

Kanji (help·info) (漢字?) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (ひらがな, 平仮名), katakana (カタカナ, 片仮名), and the Arabic numerals. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet The arabic numerals (often capitalized are the ten Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 which—along with the system The Japanese term kanji (漢字) literally means "Han characters". is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China.

Japanese writing Japanese writing

Kanji

Kana

Uses

Rōmaji
Chinese characters
Precursors
Traditional Chinese
Variant characters
Simplified Chinese
Simplified Chinese (2nd-round)
Traditional/Simplified (debate)
Kanji
Hanja
Hán tự
East Asian calligraphy
Input methods

Contents

History

Chinese characters first came to Japan on articles imported from China. The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts Kanji, characters of Chinese origin, Hiragana Kana is a general term for the syllabic Japanese scripts Hiragana (ひらがな and Katakana (カタカナ as well as the old system is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet are alternative Kana letterforms equivalent to standard kana characters is an ancient Writing system which employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller Kana printed next to a Kanji or other character to indicate its Pronunciation. are Kana suffixes following Kanji stems in Japanese written words The romanization of Japanese or ( is the use of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( Neolithic signs At a range of Neolithic sites in China, small numbers of symbols of either pictorial or simple geometric nature have been unearthed which were Variant Chinese characters ( are Chinese characters that can be used interchangeably The second round of Chinese character simplification was an aborted orthography reform officially promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's The debate on Traditional Chinese characters and Simplified Chinese characters (繁簡之爭 more recently 正簡之爭 a is an ancient Writing system which employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Idu is an archaic Writing system which represents the Korean language using Hanja. Hán tự ( {{IPA|/han˦˥ tɯ˨/}}; 漢[[wikt 字|字]] meaning " Chinese character " or chữ Nho ( {{IPA|/tɕɯ˧˨˧ ɲɔ/}} Chữ Nôm ( IPA: /cɨ3ˀ5 nom33/ chữ Nôm in Unicode: 字[[wikt 喃|喃]]/ 𡨸 喃/ 𡦂 喃 chữ Nôm in Unicode The art of Calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in the East Asian Civilizations that use or used Chinese characters. Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular Semi-cursive script is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Since the Chinese language uses a logographic script — that is a script where one or more " characters " corresponds roughly to one "word" or A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National An early instance of such an import was a gold seal given by the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty in 57 AD[1]. The Emperor of China ( refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning since the founding of the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC until the fall of The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. It is not clear when Japanese people started to gain a command of Classical Chinese by themselves. Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of Written Chinese based on the Grammar and Vocabulary of ancient Chinese The first Japanese documents were probably written by Chinese immigrants. For example, the diplomatic correspondence from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of the Liu Song Dynasty in 478 has been praised for its skillful use of allusion. Background Liu Zhun was born in 467 and ostensibly his parents were Emperor Ming and Emperor Ming's concubine Consort Chen Farong -- but history does not provide The Song Dynasty (宋朝 Pinyin: Sòng cháo Wade-Giles: Sung ( 420 – 479) was first of the four Southern Dynasties in China Later, groups of people called fuhito were organized under the monarch to read and write Classical Chinese. From the 6th century onwards, Chinese documents written in Japan tended to show interference from Japanese, suggesting the wide acceptance of Chinese characters in Japan. Language transfer (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, and crossmeaning) refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their

The Japanese language itself had no written form at the time kanji were introduced. Originally texts were written in the Chinese language and would have been read as such. Over time, however, a system known as kanbun (漢文) emerged, which involved using Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to restructure and read Chinese sentences, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar. The Japanese word originally meant " Classical Chinese writings Chinese classic texts, Classical Chinese literature " A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation The Japanese language has a highly regular Agglutinative verb morphology with both productive and fixed elements

Chinese characters also came to be used to write Japanese words, resulting in the modern kana syllabaries. A writing system called man'yōgana (used in the ancient poetry anthology Man'yōshū) evolved that used a limited set of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. is an ancient Writing system which employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. is the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, compiled sometime in the Nara or early Heian periods The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's Man'yōgana written in cursive style became hiragana, a writing system that was accessible to women (who were denied higher education). Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet Higher education is Education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, Community colleges Liberal arts colleges Major works of Heian era literature by women were written in hiragana. The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Katakana emerged via a parallel path: monastery students simplified man'yōgana to a single constituent element. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet This article concerns the buildings occupied by monastics. For the life inside monasteries and its historical roots see Monasticism. Thus the two other writing systems, hiragana and katakana, referred to collectively as kana, are actually descended from kanji. Kana is a general term for the syllabic Japanese scripts Hiragana (ひらがな and Katakana (カタカナ as well as the old system

In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write parts of the language such as nouns, adjective stems and verb stems, while hiragana are used to write inflected verb and adjective endings (okurigana), particles, native Japanese words, and words where the kanji is too difficult to read or remember. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the In Linguistics, a stem (sometimes also theme) is the part of a word that is common to all its inflected variants For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. In Linguistics, a stem (sometimes also theme) is the part of a word that is common to all its inflected variants In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice are Kana suffixes following Kanji stems in Japanese written words In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore Katakana is used for representing onomatopoeia, non-Japanese loanwords, certain naming, and for emphasis on certain words. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet Onomatopoeia (also spelled onomatopœia, from Greek: ονοματοποιΐα is a Word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing Gairaigo (外来語 is Japanese for " loan word " or "borrowed word" and indicates a Transliteration (or "transvocalization"

Local developments

While kanji are essentially Chinese hanzi used to write Japanese, there are now significant differences between kanji and hanzi, including the use of characters created in Japan, characters that have been given different meanings in Japanese, and post World War II simplifications of the kanji. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Kokuji

Kokuji (国字; literally "national characters") are characters peculiar to Japan. Kokuji are also known as wasei kanji (和製漢字; lit. "Chinese characters made in Japan"). There are hundreds of kokuji (see the sci.lang.japan FAQ: kokuji). Many are rarely used, but a number have become important additions to the written Japanese language. These include:

Some of them like "腺" have been introduced to China. In a range of hills or especially of mountains, a pass (also gap, notch, col, saddle, bwlch, Sakaki ( Cleyera japonica) is a flowering Evergreen Tree or Shrub native to warm areas of Japan, Korea Sakaki ( Cleyera japonica) is a flowering Evergreen Tree or Shrub native to warm areas of Japan, Korea A gland is an organ in an animal's body that synthesizes a substance for release such as Hormones or Breast milk, often into the Bloodstream

Kokkun

In addition to kokuji, there are kanji that have been given meanings in Japanese different from their original Chinese meanings. These kanji are not considered kokuji but are instead called kokkun (国訓) and include characters such as:

Old characters and new characters

Before the end of World War II, the Chinese characters used in Japan were mostly, if not completely, the same as the Traditional Chinese characters. Ailanthus (derived from ailanto an Ambonese word probably meaning "tree of the gods" or "tree of heaven" is a genus of Trees belonging World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including After the war the government introduced the simplified "Tōyō Kanji Form List" (Tōyō Kanji Jitai Hyō, 当用漢字字体表). At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, British The older forms are now known as 旧字体 (Kyūjitai; lit. Kyūjitai (in Shinjitai: ja 旧字体 in Kyūjitai 舊字體 meaning "old character form" is the traditional form of the Japanese Kanji used before "old character style") (舊字體 in Kyūjitai) and the simplified forms as 新字体 (Shinjitai; "new character style"). Shinjitai (in Shinjitai ja [[wikt新字体 新字体]] in Kyūjitai: ja [[wikt新字體 新字體]] meaning "new character form" are the forms of The following are some examples of Kyūjitai simplifications to Shinjitai:

Some of the new characters are similar to simplified characters later adopted in the People's Republic of China. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Also, like the simplification process in China, some of the shinjitai were once abbreviated forms (略字, Ryakuji) used in handwriting. Ryakuji ( Japanese: 略字 or 筆写略字 hissha ryakuji meaning "abbreviated characters" latter meaning "handwritten abbreviated characters" In contrast with the "proper" unsimplified characters (正字 seiji) these were originally only acceptable in colloquial contexts. This page shows examples of these handwritten abbreviations, identical to their modern Shinjitai forms, from the pre WWII era.

There are also handwritten simplifications today that are significantly simpler than their standard forms (either untouched or received only minor simplification in the postwar reforms), examples of which can be seen here [1]. Despite their wide usage and popularity, they are not considered orthographically correct and are only used in handwriting.

Theoretically, however, any Chinese character can also be a Japanese character—the Daikanwa Jiten, one of the largest dictionaries of kanji ever compiled, has about 50,000 entries, even though most of the entries have never been used in Japanese. The is a Japanese dictionary of Kanji ( Chinese characters) compiled by Morohashi Tetsuji.

Readings

Because of the way they have been adopted into Japanese, a single kanji may be used to write one or more different words (or, in most cases, morphemes). In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. From the point of view of the reader, kanji are said to have one or more different "readings". Deciding which reading is meant will depend on context, intended meaning, use in compounds, and even location in the sentence. Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings. These readings are normally categorized as either on'yomi (or on) or kun'yomi (or kun).

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

The on'yomi (音読み), the Sino-Japanese reading, is a Japanese approximation of the Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced. Sino-Japanese or Kango (ja [[wikt漢語 漢語]] in Japanese, refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the 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 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 hataraku and the on'yomi dō, and 腺 "gland", which has only the on'yomi sen.

Generally, on'yomi are classified into four types:

Examples (rare readings in parentheses)

KanjiMeaningGo-onKan-onTō-onKan'yō-on
明brightmyōmei(min)—
行gogyōkō(an)—
極extremegokukyoku——
珠pearlshushuju(zu)
度degreedo(to)——
輸transport(shu)(shu)—yu
雄masculine———yū
熊bear———yū
子childshishisu—
清clearshōsei(shin)—
京capitalkyōkei(kin)—
兵soldierhyōhei——
強stronggōkyō——

The most common form of readings is the kan-on one. The go-on readings are especially common in Buddhist terminology such as gokuraku 極楽 "paradise". Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices The tō-on readings occur in some words such as isu 椅子 "chair" or futon 布団 "mattress".

In Chinese, most characters are associated with a single Chinese syllable. However, some homographs called 多音字 (pinyin: duōyīnzì) such as 行 (pinyin: háng or xíng) (Japanese: kō, gyō) have more than one reading in Chinese representing different meanings, which is reflected in the carryover to Japanese as well. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Additionally tonality aside, most Chinese syllables (especially in Middle Chinese, in which final stop consonants were more prevalent than in most modern dialects) did not fit the largely-CV (consonant-vowel) phonotactics of classical Japanese. A tonal language is a language that uses tone to distinguish words Middle Chinese ( or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course is a branch of Phonology that deals with restrictions in a Language on the Thus most on'yomi are composed of two moras (syllables or beats), the second of which is either a lengthening of the vowel in the first mora, or one of the syllables ku, ki, tsu, chi, or syllabic n, chosen for their approximation to the final consonants of Middle Chinese. Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in Phonology that determines Syllable weight (which in turn determines stress In fact, palatalized consonants before vowels other than i, as well as syllabic n, were probably added to Japanese to better simulate Chinese; none of these features occur in words of native Japanese origin. is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added {{IPA|[j]}} sound

On'yomi primarily occur in multi-kanji compound words (熟語 jukugo), many of which are the result of the adoption (along with the kanji themselves) of Chinese words for concepts that either did not exist in Japanese or could not be articulated as elegantly using native words. This borrowing process is often compared to the English borrowings from Latin and Norman French, since Chinese-borrowed terms are often more specialized, or considered to sound more erudite or formal, than their native counterparts. The major exception to this rule is family names, in which the native kun'yomi reading is usually used (see below). A family name or last name is a type of Surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

The kun'yomi (訓読み), Japanese reading, or native reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a native Japanese word, or yamatokotoba, that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities As with on'yomi, there can be multiple kun readings for the same kanji, and some kanji have no kun'yomi at all.

For instance, the kanji for east, 東, has the on reading tō. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST internal designation HT-7U is an experimental Superconducting Tokamak Magnetic fusion energy However, Japanese already had two words for "east": higashi and azuma. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Thus the kanji 東 had the latter readings added as kun'yomi. In contrast, the kanji 寸, denoting a Chinese unit of measurement (slightly over an inch), has no native Japanese equivalent; it only has an on'yomi, sun, with no native kun reading. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Most Kokuji (Japanese-created Chinese characters) only have kun readings. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana

Kun'yomi are characterized by the strict (C)V syllable structure of yamatokotoba. Most noun or adjective kun'yomi are two to three syllables long, while verb kun'yomi are usually between one and three syllables in length, not counting trailing hiragana called okurigana. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet are Kana suffixes following Kanji stems in Japanese written words Okurigana are not considered to be part of the internal reading of the character, although they are part of the reading of the word. A beginner in the language will rarely come across characters with long readings, but three or even four syllables is not uncommon. 承る uketamawaru and 志 kokorozashi have five syllables represented by a single kanji, the longest readings of any kanji in the Jōyō character set. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education.

In a number of cases, multiple kanji were assigned to cover a single Japanese word. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Typically when this occurs, the different kanji refer to specific shades of meaning. For instance, the word なおす, naosu, when written 治す, means "to heal an illness or sickness". When written 直す it means "to fix or correct something". Sometimes the distinction is very clear, although not always. Differences of opinion among reference works is not uncommon; one dictionary may say the kanji are equivalent, while another dictionary may draw distinctions of use. As a result, native speakers of the language may have trouble knowing which kanji to use and resort to personal preference or by writing the word in hiragana. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet This latter strategy is frequently employed with more complex cases such as もと moto, which has at least five different kanji: 元, 基, 本, 下 and 素, three of which have only very subtle differences.

Local dialectical readings of kanji are also classed under Kun'yomi, most notably readings for words in Ryukyuan languages. The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, and make up a subfamily of the Japonic Language family.

Other readings

There are many kanji compounds that use a mixture of on'yomi and kun'yomi, known as jūbako (重箱) or yutō (湯桶) words, which are themselves examples of this kind of compound: the first character of jūbako is read using on'yomi, the second kun'yomi, while it is the other way around with yutō. Other examples include 場所 basho "place" (kun-on), 金色 kin'iro "golden" (on-kun) and 合気道 aikidō "the martial art Aikido" (kun-on-on). is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies philosophy and religious beliefs

Some kanji also have lesser-known readings called nanori, which are mostly used for names (often given names), and are generally closely related to the kun'yomi. are Kanji character readings (pronunciations found almost only in Japanese names. Place names sometimes also use nanori (or, occasionally, unique readings not found elsewhere).

Gikun (義訓) or Jukujikun (熟字訓) are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individual on'yomi or kun'yomi. For example, 今朝 ("this morning") is read neither as *ima'asa, the kun'yomi of the characters, nor *konchō, the on'yomi of the characters. Instead it is read as kesa—a native Japanese word with two syllables (which may be seen as a single morpheme, or as a fusion of kono (previously kefu), "this", and asa, "morning"). In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning.

Many ateji (kanji used only for their phonetic value) have meanings derived from their usage: for example, the now-archaic 亜細亜 ajia was formerly used to write "Asia" in kanji; the character 亜 now means Asia in such compounds as 東亜 tōa, "East Asia". In modern Japanese, are Kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words From the written 亜米利加 amerika, the second character was taken, resulting in the semi-formal coinage 米国 beikoku, which literally translates to "rice country" but means "United States of America". The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Which to use when 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. In general, kanji occurring in isolation, i. e. a character representing a single word unit, are typically read using their kun'yomi. They may be written with okurigana to mark the inflected ending of a verb or adjective, or by convention. are Kana suffixes following Kanji stems in Japanese written words For example: 月 tsuki "moon", 情け nasake "sympathy", 赤い akai "red", 新しい atarashii "new ", 見る miru "(to) see", 必ず kanarazu "invariably". Okurigana is an important aspect of kanji usage in Japanese; see that article for more information on kun'yomi orthography

Kanji occurring in compounds are generally read using on'yomi, called 熟語 jukugo in Japanese. are Kana suffixes following Kanji stems in Japanese written words For example, 情報 jōhō "information", 学校 gakkō "school", and 新幹線 shinkansen "bullet train" all follow this pattern. This isolated kanji and compound distinction gives words for similar concepts completely different pronunciations. 東 "east" and 北 "north" use the kun readings higashi and kita, being stand-alone characters, while 北東 "northeast", as a compound, uses the on reading 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.

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". ( is a word of Japanese origin which in English usually refers to the Suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Such compounds may also have okurigana, such as 空揚げ (also written 唐揚げ) karaage "fried food" and 折り紙 origami, although many of these can also be written with the okurigana omitted (e. (from oru meaning "folding" and kami meaning "paper" is the ancient Japanese Art of Paper folding. g. 空揚 or 折紙).

Similarly, some on'yomi characters can also be used as words in isolation: 愛 ai "love", 禅 Zen, 点 ten "mark, dot". Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Chan. Most of these cases involve kanji that have no kun'yomi, so there can be no confusion, although exceptions do occur. A lone 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. A homograph is one of a group of words that share the same spelling but have different meanings One example is 上手, which can be read in three different ways: jōzu (skilled), uwate (upper part), or kamite (upper part). In addition, 上手い has the reading umai (skilled). Furigana is often used to clarify any potential ambiguities. is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller Kana printed next to a Kanji or other character to indicate its Pronunciation.

As stated above, 重箱 jūbako and 湯桶 yutō readings are also not uncommon. Indeed, all four combinations of reading are possible: on-on, kun-kun, kun-on and on-kun.

Some famous place names, including those of Tokyo (東京 Tōkyō) and Japan itself (日本 Nihon or sometimes Nippon) 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. officially, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. 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.

Family names are also usually read with kun'yomi: 山田 Yamada, 田中 Tanaka, 鈴木 Suzuki. Given names, although they are not typically considered jūbako or yutō, often contain mixtures of kun'yomi, on'yomi and nanori: 大助 Daisuke [on-kun], 夏美 Natsumi [kun-on]. Being chosen at the discretion of the parents, the readings of given names do not follow any set rules and it is impossible to know with certainty how to read a person's name without independent verification. Parents can be quite creative, and rumours abound of children called 地球 Āsu and 天使 Enjeru, quite literally "Earth" and "Angel"; neither are common names, and have normal readings chikyū and tenshi respectively. Common patterns do exist, however, allowing experienced readers to make a good guess for most names.

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). Ruby characters are small annotative Glosses that can be placed above or to the right of a Chinese character when writing logographic languages such as is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller Kana printed next to a Kanji or other character to indicate its Pronunciation. Kana is a general term for the syllabic Japanese scripts Hiragana (ひらがな and Katakana (カタカナ as well as the old system This is especially true in texts for children or foreign learners and manga (comics). ˈmɑŋgə is the Japanese word for Comics (sometimes called komikku コミック and print Cartoons In their modern form manga date from shortly It is also used in newspapers for rare or unusual readings and for characters not included in the officially recognized set of essential kanji (see below). A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint.

Total number of kanji

The number of possible characters is disputed. The "Daikanwa Jiten" contains about 50,000 characters, and this was thought to be comprehensive, but more recent mainland Chinese dictionaries contain 80,000 or more characters, many consisting of obscure variants. The is a Japanese dictionary of Kanji ( Chinese characters) compiled by Morohashi Tetsuji. Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which is a significantly longer Lexicographical history than any other language Most of these are not in common use in either Japan or China.

Orthographic reform and lists of kanji

Main article: Japanese script reform

In 1946, following World War II, the Japanese government instituted a series of orthographic reforms. The Japanese script reform is the attempt to correlate standard spoken Japanese with the written word which began during the Meiji period. Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language Some characters were given simplified glyphs, called 新字体 (shinjitai). A glyph is an element of writing Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol whether interchangeable or context-dependent are called Allographs the abstract unit they Shinjitai (in Shinjitai ja [[wikt新字体 新字体]] in Kyūjitai: ja [[wikt新字體 新字體]] meaning "new character form" are the forms of The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged. This was done with the goal of facilitating learning for children and simplifying kanji use in literature and periodicals. These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used.

Kyōiku kanji

Main article: Kyōiku kanji

The Kyōiku kanji 教育漢字 ("education kanji") are 1006 characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school. also known as is a list of 1006 Kanji and associated readings developed and maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education that prescribes which kanji and which readings The number was 881 until 1981. The grade-level breakdown of the education kanji is known as the Gakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō (学年別漢字配当表), or the gakushū kanji.

Jōyō kanji

Main article: Jōyō kanji

The Jōyō kanji 常用漢字 are 1,945 characters consisting of all the kyōiku kanji, plus an additional 939 kanji taught in junior high and high school. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. In publishing, characters outside this category are often given furigana. Ruby characters are small annotative Glosses that can be placed above or to the right of a Chinese character when writing logographic languages such as The Jōyō kanji were introduced in 1981. They replaced an older list of 1850 characters known as the General-use kanji (tōyō kanji 当用漢字) introduced in 1946. The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō (当用漢字 "kanji for general use" are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters The Japanese National Kanji Conference will add 11 new characters to the list, totaling 1956, to be enforced by 2010[2]. These new characters are used to write prefecture names and were previously not included in the Jōyō kanji: 阪,熊,奈,岡,鹿,梨,阜,埼,茨,栃 and 媛。

Jinmeiyō kanji

Main article: Jinmeiyō kanji

The Jinmeiyō kanji 人名用漢字 are 2,928 characters consisting of the Jōyō kanji, plus an additional 983 kanji found in people's names. The jinmeiyō kanji (ja 人名用漢字 Chinese characters for use in personal names) are a set of 983 Chinese characters known as the "name kanji" in Over the years, the Minister of Justice has on several occasions added to this list. Sometimes the phrase Jinmeiyō kanji refers to all 2928, and sometimes it only refers to the 983 that are only used for names.

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 alphabet, Greek alphabet, Hindu-Arabic numerals, etc. This article is about Japanese Industrial Standards in general see JIS encoding for the character encoding used in representing the Japanese language for computer software The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early The arabic numerals (often capitalized are the ten Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 which—along with the system for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are:

Gaiji

Gaiji (外字), literally meaning "external characters", are kanji that are not represented in existing Japanese encoding systems. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities A character encoding consists of a code that pairs a sequence of characters from a given character set (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Code page 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. A glyph is an element of writing Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol whether interchangeable or context-dependent are called Allographs the abstract unit they

Gaiji can be either user-defined characters or system-specific characters. Both are a problem for information interchange, as the codepoint used to represent an external character will not be consistent from one computer or operating system to another. The Universal Character Set (UCS defined by the ISO / IEC 10646 International Standard, is a standard set of characters upon which

Gaiji were nominally prohibited in JIS X 0208-1997, and JIS X 0213-2000 used the range of code-points previously allocated to gaiji, making them completely unusable. Nevertheless, they persist today with NTT DoCoMo's "i-mode" service, where they are used for emoji (pictorial characters). is the predominant Mobile phone operator in Japan The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase " do co mmunications over the mo bile network NTT DoCoMo 's i-mode is a Wireless internet service popular in Japan. is the Japanese name for the picture characters or Emoticons used in Japanese wireless messages and webpages

Unicode allows for optional encoding of gaiji in private use areas. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's Unicode ’s Adobe's SING (Smart INdependent Glyphlets) technology allows the creation of customized gaiji. [3][4]

Types of Kanji: by Category

Main article: Chinese character classification

A Chinese scholar Xu Shen (許慎), in the Shuōwén Jiězì (說文解字) ca. All Chinese characters are Logograms but there are several derivative types Xǔ Shèn ( ca 58 CE – ca 147 CE was a Chinese philologist of the Han Dynasty. The Shuōwén Jiězì ( "Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters" was an early 2nd century CE Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty 100 CE, classified Chinese characters into six categories (Japanese: 六書 rikusho). The traditional classification is still taught but is problematic and no longer the focus of modern lexicographic practice, as some categories are not clearly defined, nor are they mutually exclusive: the first four refer to structural composition, while the last two refer to usage.

(For a table of all the kyōiku kanji (教育漢字) broken down by category see this page, from which the above description has been extracted. )

Shōkei-moji (象形文字)

These characters are sketches of the object they represent. For example, 目 is an eye, 木 is a tree, etc. The current forms of the characters are very different from the original, and it is now hard to see the origin in many of these characters. It is somewhat easier to see in seal script. Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. This kind of character is often called a "pictograph" in English (Shōkei -- 象形 is also the Japanese word for Egyptian hieroglyphs). A pictogram ( also spelled pictogramme) or pictograph is a Symbol representing a Concept, object, activity place or event These make up a small fraction of modern characters.

Shiji-moji (指事文字)

Shiji-moji are called "logograms", "simple ideographs", "simple indicatives", and sometimes just "symbols" in English. A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idea "idea" + grafo "to write" is a Graphic symbol that represents an Idea They are usually graphically simple and represent an abstract concept such as a direction: e. g. 上 representing "up" or "above" and 下 representing "down" or "below". These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

Kaii-moji (会意文字)

Often called "compound indicatives", "associative compounds", "compound ideographs", or just "ideographs". These are usually a combination of pictographs that combine to present an overall meaning. An example is the kokuji 峠 (mountain pass) made from 山 (mountain), 上 (up) and 下 (down). Another is 休 (rest) from 人 (person) and 木 (tree). These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

Keisei-moji (形声文字)

These are called "phono-semantic", "semantic-phonetic", "semasio-phonetic" or "phonetic-ideographic" characters in English. They are by far the largest category, making up about 90% of characters. Typically they are made up of two components, one of which indicates the meaning or semantic context, and the other the pronunciation. (The pronunciation really relates to the original Chinese, and may now only be distantly detectable in the modern Japanese on'yomi of the kanji. The same is true of the semantic context, which may have changed over the centuries or in the transition from Chinese to Japanese. As a result, it is a common error in folk etymology to fail to recognize a phono-semantic compound, typically instead inventing a compound-indicative explanation. )

As examples of this, consider the kanji with the 言 shape: 語, 記, 訳, 説, etc. All are related to word/language/meaning. Similarly kanji with the 雨 (rain) shape (雲, 電, 雷, 雪, 霜, etc. ) are almost invariably related to weather. Kanji with the 寺 (temple) shape on the right (詩, 持, 時, 侍, etc. A temple (from the Latin word Templum) is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities such as prayer and sacrifice or analogous rites ) usually have an on'yomi of "shi" or "ji". Sometimes one can guess the meaning and/or reading simply from the components. However, exceptions do exist -- for example, neither 需 nor 霊 have anything to do with weather (at least in their modern usage), and 待 has an on'yomi of "tai". That is, a component may play a semantic role in one compound, but a phonetic role in another.

Tenchū-moji (転注文字)

This group have variously been called "derivative characters", or "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'.

Kashaku-moji (仮借文字)

These are called "phonetic loan characters". All Chinese characters are Logograms but there are several derivative types The etymology of the characters always follows one of the pattern above, but the present-day meaning is completely unrelated 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. Interestingly, 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. 東 'east' is a pictograph of a bag on a stick, but it was used to mean 'east' very early in the history of the Chinese written language; not one example of it meaning 'bag on a stick' has survived.

Related symbols

The iteration mark (々) is used to indicate that the preceding kanji is to be repeated, functioning similarly to a ditto mark in English. Iteration marks are characters or punctuation that represent a duplicated character or word Ibid ( Latin, short for ibidem, "the same place" is the term used to provide an Endnote or Footnote Citation or It is pronounced as though the kanji were written twice in a row, for example 色々 (iroiro "various") and 時々 (tokidoki "sometimes"). This mark also appears in personal and place names, as in the surname Sasaki (佐々木). in modern times usually consist of a Family name ( Surname) followed by a Given name. This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji 仝 (variant of 同 dō "same").

Another frequently used symbol is ヶ (a small katakana "ke"), pronounced "ka" when used to indicate quantity (such as 六ヶ月, rokkagetsu "six months") or "ga" in place names like Kasumigaseki (霞ヶ関). is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet Kasumigaseki (霞が関 霞ヶ関 or 霞ケ関 literally Fort of Fog) is a district in Chiyoda Ward in Tokyo, Japan. This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji 箇.

Radical-and-stroke sorting (Alphabetization)

Main article: Radical-and-stroke sorting

Kanji, whose thousands of symbols defy ordering by convention such as is used with the Roman Alphabet, uses radical-and-stroke sorting to order a list of Kanji words. In this system, common components of characters are identified; these are called radicals in Chinese and logographic systems derived from Chinese, such as Kanji. This disambiguation page differentiates the various historical uses of the term radical in the context of Chinese characters

Characters are then grouped by their primary radical, then ordered by number of pen strokes within radicals. When there is no obvious radical or more than one radical, convention governs which is used for collation. For example, the Chinese character for "mother" (媽) is sorted as a thirteen-stroke character under the three-stroke primary radical (女) meaning "woman".

Kanji education

Japanese schoolchildren are expected to learn 1006 basic kanji characters, the kyōiku kanji, before finishing the sixth grade. also known as is a list of 1006 Kanji and associated readings developed and maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education that prescribes which kanji and which readings The order in which these characters are learned is fixed. The kyōiku kanji list is a subset of a larger list of 1945 kanji characters known as the jōyō kanji, characters required for the level of fluency necessary to read newspapers and literature in Japanese. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. This larger list of characters is to be mastered by the end of the ninth grade. [5] Schoolchildren learn the characters by repetition and radical. This disambiguation page differentiates the various historical uses of the term radical in the context of Chinese characters

Students studying Japanese as a foreign language are often required to acquire kanji without having first learned the vocabulary associated with them. Strategies for these learners vary from copying-based methods to mnemonic-based methods such as those used in James Heisig's series Remembering the Kanji. A mnemonic device (nəˈmɒnɪk is a Memory aid Commonly met mnemonics are often verbal something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember James W Heisig is a Philosopher who has specialized in the field of Philosophy of religion. Other textbooks use methods based on the etymology of the characters, such as Mathias and Habein's The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji and Henshall's A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time Pictorial mnemonics, as in the text Kanji Pict-o-graphix, are also seen.

The Japanese government provides the Kanji kentei (日本漢字能力検定試験 Nihon kanji nōryoku kentei shiken; "Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude") which tests the ability to read and write kanji. Japan no longer officially has the traditional Federal system, and its 47 prefectures, and prefectural and municipal assembly members are popularly elected for The, also known as, or Kanken, is a test of Kanji ability There are 12 levels (levels 10 through 3 pre-2 2 pre-1 and 1 with level 10 being the lowest and level The highest level of the Kanji kentei tests about 6000 kanji.

See also

This article contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. Mojibake is the happenstance of incorrect unreadable characters (garbage characters shown when Computer software fails to render a text correctly according to its associated A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese (

References

  1. ^ gold seal from Han emperor, 57 CE, discovered in 1758
  2. ^ http://www.asahi.com/culture/update/0128/TKY200801280154.html
  3. ^ http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/sing_gaiji.html Introducing the Adobe SING Gaiji architecture
  4. ^ http://www.adobe.com/jp/products/indesign/sing_gaiji.html About SING in Japanese
  5. ^ J. Kanji Reference Index by Concept This index method groups together kanji that describe things that deal with the same concept for example Kanji for numbers or Kanji This index method groups together the Jōyō kanji that are written with the same number of strokes Stroke order ( 筆順 hitsujun or ja 書き順 kaki-jun; 필순 筆順 "pilsun" or ko 획순 畫順 "hoeksun" refers to the correct order in The Kanji of the year (今年の漢字 Kotoshi no Kanji) is a Kanji chosen by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society (財団法人日本漢字能力検定協会 The Japanese script reform is the attempt to correlate standard spoken Japanese with the written word which began during the Meiji period. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Halpern, "The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dicitonary", p. 38a (2006)

The standard reference for the Japanese orthographic system—which, in its full, mixed form is referred to as kanji kana-majiri—is Hadamitzky, W. , and Spahn, M. , Kanji and Kana (Boston: Tuttle, 1981).

External links


Dictionary

kanji

-noun

  1. Chinese characters, one of the three main writing systems of Japanese. Kanji were borrowed from the Chinese language in three waves, starting in the 5th century. There are two main ways of reading most characters, the kun’yomi (Japanese reading, 訓読み) and the on’yomi (Chinese reading, 音読み). There may also be a nanori or name reading that is used for people and places.
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