japanese kanji: a shared, visual language

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Japanese Kanji: A Shared, Visual Language


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As a translation and localization industry professional and a team member of

Globalization Partners International (GPI), I am involved with multiple

projects across multiple languages. I get a firsthand look at the intricacies,

complexities and histories of languages around the world.

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Asian languages are the epitome of intricate and

complex, and with a long history, these

languages are especially fascinating. For this

blog, I will briefly discuss the details and history

of Japanese Kanji.




History

Kanji is the oldest written form of language in recorded human history, and it is comprised of over 10,000 characters. It originated in ancient China and was used in China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan. Currently, Vietnam and Korea have their own written languages and no longer use Kanji, although you can occasionally see some characters still being used. While their pronunciation is different, the meaning of Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji are, for the most part, the same.




For example:

Each character was originally created by drawing a picture to represent what was being communicated. Once you understand the structure of the Kanji characters, especially when several characters are combined to create a word, it becomes easier to understand, and it all begins to makes sense.




Scripts

Kanji is one of three scripts used in the Japanese

language. Children are first taught Hiragana at

school, as well as its counterpart, Katakana, which

is used to write western words.




Around the first grade, students are introduced to simple, single-stroke Kanji.




By the time they finish elementary school

(6th grade), Japanese students will have learned

approximately 1,000 Kanji characters. Then by

the end of high school, that number grows to

approximately 2,000.




If you do not know how to write certain phrases in Kanji, you can always use

Hiragana.

Hiragana is similar to the basic English alphabet. Each individual Hiragana

character does not have any meaning when written alone and is used

phonetically. If you do not know my name in Kanji you can always write it in

Hiragana: 堤→つつみ. However, writing complete sentences using only

Hiragana can look childish and reflects on your education and academic level.




For example:

"I am from Wakayama-city in Wakayama prefecture."




Written in Japanese with Kanji:




The same sentence written in Hiragana:




The sentence written with Hiragana

looks like it could have been written by

an elementary school student.




Character Structure

Kanji often consist of several parts: some are singular components, while others are made up

of several different Kanji combined into a singular character. Thus, there are effectively

two different types of characters: those that use one Kanji component standing alone (that

represents a single word), as well as those that are made up of two or more Kanji characters

combined to create a more complex character. These are illustrated below.




Single Kanji Characters:

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Combined Kanji Characters:




Most Kanji characters consist

of two characters together.




The left side represents the type or category of the

meaning of the word and the right side is the descriptor.

The example above, the Kanji character on the left

represents "day" and the Kanji character on the right

represents "blue" which translates to "blue sky." When

these two characters are combined, they become the

phrase "sunny day."




The left side of this Kanji represents wood or tree and the right side represents something flat.

Tree + Flat = wooden board.

As mentioned, Japanese people may not know every single Kanji they come across, however they can always guess its meaning based on its components and context.




If you see the above characters and don't know what this Kanji combination is, you can make a guess based on the two characters used. Since the Kanji combination uses wood on the left, you can tell that it has something to do with wood or a tree. The right side has the Kanji character for flower. This tells us that the word must be for some sort of flowering tree.

The same goes for many names of fish, as most incorporate the basic Kanji for fish: 魚. If you go to a Sushi bar you may notice that their green tea mugs have the names of fish on them.




For example:




SummaryOnce you understand and begin to recognize the

structure of the Kanji characters, they no longer

seem so strange. For beginning or intermediate

users, a little bit of knowledge goes a long way,

and it can be fun to try and decipher what a new

character means. The complexities of the Kanji

characters create a beautifully visual language.




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japanese kanji: a shared, visual language

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