Kanji

zh-tw:漢字 zh-cn:汉字

Kanji [漢字 literal meaning: "Han character(s)]one ofthree character sets used inJapanese writing system (the other two beingkana: hiraganakatakana). Theybased onChinese hanzi andsome degreemutually readable, but Japanese has some major differences as well. In 1946Japanese government soughtsimplifyusageKanjiJapanese literatureperiodicalsdefinedtouyou kanji (kanjidaily use) set comprised1850 characters. This listkanji was modified1981 toset1950 characters calledjouyou kanji (essential characters). Characters that were culled from daily usage were replaced by combinations ofsimpler jouyou kanji characters. Guessingmeaning ofkanji character from its Chinese meaning can be very misleading. Unlikekana, which represent syllables, kanjilogographs or glyphs whose simplest memberspictograms. They were imported overperiodcenturies fromChinese language,typically more complex than kana,have different meaningspronunciations depending on how theycombinedother kanjikana. A kanji will often have its pronunciation forgiven context spelled outruby characters known as "furigana," small hiragana written aboveor kumimojiits right. Thisespecially truechildren's textsmangas, orcharacters not included inessential kanji set.

Kanji have two categoriesmeaningspronunciations, referredas "readings": on readings (音読み or onyomi)kun readings (訓読み or kunyomi). On readingsderived fromoriginal Chinese pronunciations ofcharacter, andtypically used whenkanjipart ofcompound. Kun readingstypically used when kanjiused on their own, either as complete nouns or as adjectiveverb stems. Most kanji have at least one on-readingone kun-reading each. Kanji also havethird, lesser-known reading called nanori reading, whichusedpeople's names.

Thereexceptionsthese rules. Many kanji have no kun-reading andfew have no on-reading. Some use kun-readings, not on-readings,make compounds.

Oftenkanji will be used forroot ofverb, withconjugation writtenhiragana. When kanji charactersnot followed by hiragana theyoften groupedtwos andpronounced inOn reading. The word "kanji"(漢字) isperfect examplethis. Its pronunciationderived fromChinese word "hanzi".

Japanese prefersuseideographic iteration mark (々)indicateplural meaning, whereas Chinese may reusefirst character, or does not indicate plural at all (althoughChinese usenot limitedthatindicating plurality; itoften usedforpurposeindicatingrepetition ofprevious character orgroupcharacters).

Example ofword 'people'
Japanese	人々
Chinese:	人人

Therecurrently no accepted theory aboutoriginkanjiaccounts ranging from intermediary introduction by Korea, importation by JapaneseChina,exportation by ChineseJapan.

See also

• Chinese character
• Hanja,equivalentKanjiKorean.
• Han unification
• Kanji Reference Index

References

• Hannas, William. C. 1997. Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. UniversityHawaii Press. ISBN 082481892X (paperback); ISBN 0824818423 (hardcover)
• DeFrancis, John. 1990. The Chinese Language: FactFantasy. Honolulu: UniversityHawaii Press. ISBN 0824810686