Kanji

This article is about the Chinese-derived characters used in Japanese writing. For other uses, seeKanji (disambiguation).

Kanji(Chữ Hán,Japanese pronunciation:[kaɲdʑi])are thelogographicChinese charactersadapted from theChinese scriptused in the writing ofJapanese.They were made a major part of theJapanese writing systemduring the time ofOld Japaneseand are still used, along with the subsequently-derivedsyllabic scriptsofhiraganaandkatakana.The characters have Japanesepronunciations;most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After theMeiji Restoration,Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known asshinjitai,by a process similar toChina'ssimplification efforts,with the intention to increaseliteracyamong the common folk. Since the 1920s, theJapanese governmenthas published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanjiused in Japanese namesandin common communication.

Kanji
Kanji written in kanji withfurigana
Script type	Logographic
Time period	5th century AD – present
Direction	Vertical right-to-left, left-to-right
Languages	Old Japanese,Kanbun,Japanese,Ryukyuan languages,Hachijō
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script Clerical script Regular script Kanji
Sister systems	Hanja,zhuyin,traditional Chinese,simplified Chinese,chữ Hán,chữ Nôm,Khitan script,Jurchen script,Tangut script,Yi script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Hani(500),​Han (Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja)
Unicode
Unicode alias	Han

The termkanjiin Japanese literally means "Hancharacters ".It is written in Japanese by using the same characters as intraditional Chinese,and both refer to the character writing system known in Chinese ashanzi(traditional Chinese:Chữ Hán;simplified Chinese:Chữ Hán;pinyin:hànzì;lit.'Hancharacters').The significant use of Chinese characters in Japan first began to take hold around the 5th century AD and has since had a profound influence in shaping Japanese culture, language, literature, history, and records.Inkstoneartifacts at archaeological sites dating back to the earlierYayoi periodwere also found to contain Chinese characters.

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,Thànhmeans 'honest' in both languages but is pronouncedmakotoorseiin Japanese, andchénginStandard Mandarin Chinese.Individual kanji characters and multi-kanji words invented in Japan from Chinesemorphemeshave been borrowed into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese in recent times. These are known asWasei-kango,or Japanese-made Chinese words. For example, the word fortelephone,Điện thoạidenwain Japanese, was derived from the Chinese words for "electric" and "conversation." It was thencalquedasdiànhuàin Mandarin Chinese,điện thoạiin Vietnamese and전화jeonhwain Korean.

History

Nihon Shoki(720 AD), considered by historians and archaeologists as the most complete extant historical record of ancient Japan, was written entirely in kanji.

Chinese charactersfirst came toJapanon official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported fromChina.The earliest known instance of such an import was theKing of Na gold sealgiven byEmperor Guangwu of Hanto aWaemissary in 57 AD.Chinese coins as well asinkstonesfrom the first century AD have also been found inYayoi periodarchaeological sites.However, the Japanese people of that era probably had little to no comprehension of the script, and they would remain relatively illiterate until the fifth century AD, when writing in Japan became more widespread.According to theNihon ShokiandKojiki,a semi-legendary scholar calledWaniwas dispatched to Japan by the (Korean)Kingdom of Baekjeduring the reign ofEmperor Ōjinin the early fifth century, bringing with him knowledge ofConfucianismand Chinese characters.

The earliest Japanese documents were probably written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at theYamatocourt.For example, the diplomatic correspondence fromKing Bu of WatoEmperor Shun of Liu Songin 478 AD has been praised for its skillful use ofallusion.Later, groups of people calledfuhitowere organized under the monarch to read and writeClassical Chinese.During the reign ofEmpress Suiko(593–628), the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at the Japanese court.

In ancient times, paper was so rare that people wrote kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of wood, calledmokkan(Mộc giản). 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 theHeian period(794–1185), a system known askanbunemerged, which involved using Chinese text withdiacritical marksto allow Japanese speakers to read Chinese sentences and restructure them into Japanese on the fly, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules ofJapanese grammar.This was essentially a kind of codifiedsight translation.

Chinese characters also came to be used to write texts in the vernacularJapanese language,resulting in the modernkanasyllabaries. Around 650 AD, a writing system calledman'yōgana(used in the ancient poetryanthologyMan'yōshū) evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning.Man'yōganawritten incursive styleevolved intohiragana(literally "flutteringkana"in reference to the motion of the brush during cursive writing), oronna-de,that is, "ladies' hand",a writing system that was accessible to women (who were deniedhigher education). Major works ofHeian-eraliteratureby women were written inhiragana.Katakana(literally "partialkana",in reference to the practice of using a part of a kanji character) emerged via a parallel path:monasterystudents simplifiedman'yōganato a single constituent element. Thus the two other writing systems,hiraganaandkatakana,referred to collectively askana,are descended from kanji. In contrast withkana(仮 danh,literally "borrowed name", in reference to the character being "borrowed" as a label for its sound), kanji are also calledmana(Tên thật,literally "true name", in reference to the character being used as a label for its meaning).

In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write certain words or parts of words (usuallycontent wordssuch asnouns,adjectivestems,andverbstems), whilehiraganaare used to writeinflectedverb and adjective endings,phonetic complementsto disambiguate readings (okurigana),particles,and miscellaneous words which have no kanji or whose kanji are considered obscure or too difficult to read or remember.Katakanaare mostly used for representingonomatopoeia,non-Japanese loanwords(except those borrowed fromancient Chinese), the names of plants and animals (with exceptions), and for emphasis on certain words.

Orthographic reform and lists of kanji

Main article:Japanese script reform

A young woman practicing kanji.Ukiyo-ewoodblock print byYōshū Chikanobu,1897.

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.Kamo no Mabuchi,a scholar of theEdo period,criticized the large number of characters in kanji. He also appreciated the small number of characters inkanacharacters and argued for the limitation of kanji.

After theMeiji Restorationand 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 onlykanaor 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, theJapanese Armydecided on the "Table of Restricted Kanji for Weapons Names"(Binh khí tên dùng chế hạn chữ Hán biểu,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"(Tiêu chuẩn chữ Hán biểu,hyōjun kanji-hyō)with a total of 2,528 characters, showing the standard for kanji used by ministries and agencies and in general society.

In 1946, afterWorld War IIand under theAllied Occupation of Japan,the Japanese government, guided by theSupreme Commander of the Allied Powers,instituted a series oforthographicreforms, to help children learn and to simplify kanji use in literature and periodicals.

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 simplifiedglyphs,calledshinjitai(Tân tự thể).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 ashyōgaiji(Biểu ngoại tự).

Kyōikukanji

Main article:Kyōiku kanji

Thekyōiku kanji(Giáo dục chữ Hán,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 thegakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō(Năm học đừng chữ Hán xứng đương biểu),or thegakushū kanji(Học tập chữ Hán).This list of kanji is maintained by theJapanese Ministry of Educationand prescribes which kanji characters and which kanji readings students should learn for each grade.

Jōyōkanji

Main article:Jōyō kanji

Thejōyō kanji(Thường dùng chữ Hán,regular-use kanji)are 2,136 characters consisting of all thekyōikukanji, plus 1,110 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school.In publishing, characters outside this category are often givenfurigana.Thejōyōkanji were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as thetōyō kanji(Đương dùng chữ Hán,general-use kanji),introduced in 1946. Originally numbering 1,945 characters, thejōyōkanji list was expanded to 2,136 in 2010. Some of the new characters were previouslyjinmeiyōkanji; some are used to write prefecture names:Phản,Hùng,Nại,Cương,Lộc,Lê,Phụ,Kỳ,Tì,栃andViện.

Jinmeiyōkanji

Main article:Jinmeiyō kanji

As of September 25, 2017, thejinmeiyō kanji(Người danh dùng chữ Hán,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 ofjōyōkanji. There were only 92 kanji in the original list published in 1952, but new additions have been made frequently. Sometimes the termjinmeiyōkanji refers to all 2,999 kanji from both thejōyōandjinmeiyōlists combined.

Hyōgaikanji

Main article:Hyōgai kanji

Hyōgai kanji(Biểu ngoại chữ Hán,"unlisted characters" )are any kanji not contained in thejōyōkanji andjinmeiyōkanji lists. These are generally written using traditional characters, butextendedshinjitaiforms exist.

Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji

TheJapanese Industrial Standardsfor kanji andkanadefine character code-points for each kanji andkana,as well as other forms of writing such as theLatin Alpha bet,Cyrillic script,Greek Alpha bet,Arabic numerals,etc. for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are:

• JIS X 0208,the most recent version of the main standard. It has 6,355 kanji.
• JIS X 0212,a supplementary standard containing a further 5,801 kanji. This standard is rarely used, mainly because the commonShift JISencoding system could not use it. This standard is effectively obsolete.
• JIS X 0213,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/Unicodestandard.

Gaiji

Gaiji(Ngoại tự,literally "external characters" )are kanji that are not represented in existing Japaneseencoding systems.These include variant forms of common kanji that need to be represented alongside the more conventionalglyphin reference works and can include non-kanji symbols as well.

Gaijican be either user-defined characters, system-specific characters or third-party add-on products.Both are a problem for information interchange, as thecode pointused to represent an external character will not be consistent from one computer or operating system to another.

Gaijiwere nominally prohibited in JIS X 0208-1997 where the available number of code-points was reduced to only 940.JIS X 0213-2000 used the entire range of code-points previously allocated togaiji,making them completely unusable. Most desktop and mobile systems have moved toUnicodenegating the need forgaijifor most users. Nevertheless, they persist today in Japan's three major mobile phone information portals, where they are used foremoji(pictorial characters).

Unicodeallows for optional encoding ofgaijiinprivate use areas,whileAdobe's SING(Smart INdependent Glyphlets)technology allows the creation of customized gaiji.

TheText Encoding Initiativeuses a⟨g⟩element to encode any non-standard character or glyph, including gaiji. Thegstands forgaiji.

Total number of kanji

There is no definitive count of kanji characters, just as there is none of Chinese characters generally. TheDai Kan-Wa Jiten,which is considered to be comprehensive in Japan, contains about 50,000 characters. TheZhonghua 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.

A list of 2,136jōyōkanjiis 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 variousJapanese Industrial Standards for kanji.

Readings

Borrowing typology of Han characters

	Meaning	Pronunciation
a) semanticon	L1	L1
b) semantickun	L1	L2
c) phoneticon	—	L1
d) phonetickun	—	L2
*With L1 representing the language borrowed from (Chinese) and L2 representing the borrowing language (Japanese).

Individual kanji may be used to write one or more different words ormorphemes,leading to different pronunciations or "readings." The correct reading is determined by contextual cues (such as whether the character represents part of a compound word versus an independent word), the exact intended meaning of the word, and its position within the sentence. For example,Hôm nayis mostly readkyō,meaning "today", but in formal writing it is instead readkonnichi,meaning "nowadays", which is understood from context.Furiganais used to specify ambiguous readings, such as rare, literary, or otherwise non-standard readings. This ambiguity may arise due to more than one reading becoming activated in the brain.

Kanji readings are categorized as either on'yomi(Âm đọc み,literally "sound reading"),from Chinese, or kun'yomi(Huấn đọc 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 askiku(Cúc,"chrysanthemum", anon-reading)oriwashi(鰯,"sardine", akun-reading);kun-only are common for Japanese-coined kanji (kokuji).

Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings; the most complex common example isSinh,which is read assei,shō,nama,ki,o-u,i-kiru,i-kasu,i-keru,u-mu,u-mareru,ha-eru,andha-yasu,totaling eight basic readings (the first two areon,while the rest arekun), or 12 if related verbs are counted as distinct.

On'yomi(Sino-Japanese reading)

Main article:On'yomi

Theon'yomi(Âm đọc み,[oɰ̃jomi],lit."sound(-based) reading" ),theSino-Japanesereading, 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 astranslation 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 anon'yomireading 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 multipleon'yomi,and often multiple meanings. Kanji invented in Japan (kokuji) would not normally be expected to haveon'yomi,but there are exceptions, such as the characterĐộng"to work", which has thekun'yomi"hatara(ku)"and theon'yomi"dō",andTuyến"gland", which has only theon'yomi"sen"—in both cases these come from theon'yomiof the phonetic component, respectivelyĐộng"dō"andTuyền"sen".

Kun'yomi(native reading)

Main article:Kun'yomi

Thekun'yomi(Huấn đọc み,[kɯɰ̃jomi],lit."meaning reading" ),the native reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a nativeJapaneseword, oryamato kotoba,that closely approximated the meaning of theChinesecharacter when it was introduced. As withon'yomi,there can be multiplekun'yomifor the same kanji, and some kanji have nokun'yomiat all.

Ateji

Main article:Ateji

Ateji(Đương て tự)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 ofateji,narrowlyjukujikun). Therefore, only the full compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are alsospecial caseswhere the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or traditional reading.

The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree inChinese varieties,where there areliterary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters—borrowed readings and native readings. In Chinese these borrowed readings and native readings are etymologically related, since they are between Chinese varieties (which are related), not from Chinese to Japanese (which are not related). They thus formdoubletsand are generally similar, analogous to differenton'yomi,reflecting different stages of Chinese borrowings into Japanese.

Gairaigo

Longer readings exist for non-Jōyōcharacters and non-kanji symbols, where a longgairaigoword may be the reading (this is classed askun'yomi—seesingle character gairaigo,below)—the character糎has the sevenkanareadingセンチメートルsenchimētoru"centimeter", though it is generally written as "cm" (with two half-width characters, so occupying one space); another common example is '%' (the percent sign), which has the five kana readingパーセントpāsento.

Mixed readings

Ajūbako(Trọng rương),which has a mixedon-kunreading

Ayutō(Canh thùng),which has a mixedkun-onreading

There are many kanji compounds that use a mixture ofon'yomiandkun'yomi,known asjūbako(Trọng rương,multi-layered food box)oryutō(Canh thùng,hot liquid pail)words (depending on the order), which are themselves examples of this kind of compound (they areautological words): the first character ofjūbakois read usingon'yomi,the secondkun'yomi(on-kun,Japanese:Trọng rương đọc み). It is the other way around withyu-tō(kun-on,Japanese:Canh thùng đọc み).

Formally, these are referred to asjūbako-yomi(Trọng rương đọc み,jūbakoreading)andyutō-yomi(Canh thùng đọc み,yutōreading).In both these words, theon'yomihas a long vowel; long vowels in Japanese generally are derived from sound changes common to loans from Chinese, hence distinctive ofon'yomi.These are the Japanese form ofhybrid words.Other examples includebasho(Nơi,"place",kun-on,Canh thùng đọc み),kin'iro(Kim sắc,"golden",on-kun,Trọng rương đọc み)andaikidō(Hợp khí nói,the martial artAikido",kun-on-on,Canh thùng đọc み).

Atejioften use mixed readings. For instance, the city ofSapporo(サッポロ), whose name derives from theAinu languageand has no meaning in Japanese, is written with theon-kuncompound [ Sapporo ]Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |4= (help)(which includessokuonas if it were a purelyoncompound).

Special readings

Gikun(Nghĩa huấn)andjukujikun(Chữ quen huấn)are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individualon'yomiorkun'yomi.From the point of view of the character, rather than the word, this is known as anankun(Khó huấn,"difficult reading" ),and these are listed in kanji dictionaries under the entry for the character.

Gikunare other readings assigned to a character instead of its standard readings. An example is readingHàn(meaning "cold" ) asfuyu( "winter" ) rather than the standard readingssamuorkan,and instead of the usual spelling forfuyuofĐông.Another example is usingCây thuốc lá(lit. "smoke grass" ) with the readingtabako( "tobacco" ) rather than the otherwise-expected readings of*kemuri-gusaor*ensō.Some of these, such as fortabako,have becomelexicalized,but in many cases this kind of use is typically non-standard and employed in specific contexts by individual writers. Aided withfurigana,gikuncould 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.

Jukujikunare 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,Sáng nay( "this morning" ) isjukujikun.This word is not read as*ima'asa,the expectedkun'yomiof the characters, and only infrequently askonchō,theon'yomiof the characters. The most common reading iskesa,a native bisyllabic Japanese word that may be seen as a singlemorpheme,or as a compound ofke( “this”, as inkefu,the older reading forHôm nay,“today” ), andasa,“morning”.Likewise,Hôm nay( "today" ) is alsojukujikun,usually read with the native readingkyō;itson'yomi,konnichi,does occur in certain words and expressions, especially in the broader sense "nowadays" or "current", such asHôm nay( "present-day" ), although in the phrasekonnichi wa( "good day" ),konnichiis typically spelled wholly withhiraganarather than with the kanjiHôm nay.

Jukujikunare primarily used for some native Japanese words, such asYamato(Đại cùngorOa,the name of the dominant ethnic group of Japan, a former Japanese province as well as ancient name for Japan), and for some old borrowings, such asLá liễu cá(shishamo,literally "willow leaf fish" ) from Ainu,Cây thuốc lá(tabako,literally “smoke grass” ) from Portuguese, orMạch rượu(bīru,literally “wheat alcohol” ) from Dutch, especially if the word was borrowed before theMeiji period.Words whose kanji arejukujikunare often usually written ashiragana(if native), orkatakana(if borrowed); some old borrowed words are also written ashiragana,especially Portuguese loanwords such asかるた(karuta) from Portuguese "carta"(English “card” ) orてんぷら(tempura) from Portuguese "tempora"(English “times, season” ),as well asたばこ(tabako).

Sometimes,jukujikuncan even have more kanji than there are syllables, examples beingkera(Chim gõ kiến,“woodpecker” ),gumi(Hồ đồi tử,“silver berry, oleaster” ),andHozumi(Tám tháng mồng một,a surname).This phenomenon is observed in animal names that are shortened and used as suffixes for zoological compound names, for example whenHoàng kim trùng,normally read askoganemushi,is shortened tokoganeinHắc hoàng kim trùngkurokogane,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 exampleĐại nguyên soáidaigen(sui),or the historical male name suffixHữu vệ môn-emon,which was shortened from the worduemon.

The kanji compound forjukujikunis 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 andon'yomimay or may not be used in Japanese. For example,Tuần lộc( “reindeer” ) isjukujikunfortonakai,from Ainu, but theon'yomireading ofjunrokuis also used. In some cases, Japanese coinages have subsequently beenborrowed back into Chinese,such asMonkfish(ankō,“monkfish”).

The underlying word forjukujikunis a native Japanese word or foreign borrowing, which either does not have an existing kanji spelling (eitherkun'yomiorateji) 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 wordĐô vật(sumō,“sumo”) is originally from the verbTranh う(sumau,“to vie, to compete” ), whileHôm nay(kyō,“today” ) is fusional (from olderke,“this” +fu,“day” ).

In rare cases,jukujikunis also applied to inflectional words (verbs and adjectives), in which case there is frequently a corresponding Chinese word. The most common example of an inflectionaljukujikunis the adjectiveĐáng yêu い(kawai-i,“cute” ), originallykawafayu-i;the word(Đáng yêu)is used inChinese,but the correspondingon'yomiis not used in Japanese. By contrast, "appropriate" can be eitherTương ứng しい(fusawa-shii,asjukujikun) orTương ứng(sōō,ason'yomi). Which reading to use can be discerned by the presence or absence of the-shiiending (okurigana). A common example of a verb withjukujikunisLưu hành る(haya-ru,“to spread, to be in vogue” ), corresponding toon'yomiLưu hành(ryūkō). A samplejukujikundeverbal (noun derived from a verb form) isCường thỉnh(yusuri,“extortion” ), fromCường thỉnh る(yusu-ru,“to extort” ), spelling fromCường thỉnh(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 usualkun'yomi.Examples includeMặt trắng い(omo-shiro-i,“interesting”, literally “face + white” ) andGiảo hiền い(zuru-gashiko-i,“sly”,lit.“cunning, crafty + clever, smart” ).

Typographically, thefuriganaforjukujikunare 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,jukujikuncan be considered a form ofateji,though in narrow usage, "ateji"refers specifically to using characters for sound and not meaning (sound-spelling), whereas"jukujikun"refers to using characters for their meaning and not sound (meaning-spelling). Manyjukujikun(established meaning-spellings) began asgikun(improvised meaning-spellings). Occasionally, a single word will have many such kanji spellings. An extreme example ishototogisu(lesser cuckoo),which may be spelt in many ways, includingĐỗ quyên,Khi điểu,Chim đỗ quyên,Không bằng quy,Hoắc công điểu,Thục hồn,Xấp tay điểu,Đỗ vũ,Điền quyên,Xấp thẳng điểu,andQuách công—many of these variant spellings are particular tohaikupoems.

Single character gairaigo

In some rare cases, an individual kanji has a reading that is borrowed from a modern foreign language (gairaigo), though most often these words are written inkatakana.Notable examples includepēji(Trang, ページ,page),botan(Khấu ／ nút, ボタン,button),zero(Linh, ゼロ,zero),andmētoru(Mễ, メートル,meter).These are classed askun'yomiof a single character, because the character is being used for meaning only (without the Chinese pronunciation), rather than asateji,which is the classification used when a gairaigo term is written as a compound (2 or more characters). However, unlike the vast majority of otherkun'yomi,these readings are not native Japanese, but rather borrowed, so the "kun'yomi"label can be misleading. The readings are also written inkatakana,unlike the usualhiraganafor nativekun'yomi.Note that most of these characters are for units, particularlySI units,in many cases using new characters (kokuji) coined during theMeiji period,such askiromētoru(粁, キロメートル,kilometer,Mễ"meter" +Ngàn"thousand" ).

Nanori

Main article:Nanori

Some kanji also have lesser-known readings callednanori(Danh thừa り),which are mostly used for names (oftengiven names) and, in general, are closely related to thekun'yomi.Place names sometimes also usenanorior, occasionally, unique readings not found elsewhere.

When to use which reading

Although there are general rules for when to useon'yomiand when to usekun'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 multiplekun'yomioron'yomi.When reading Japanese, one primarily recognizeswords(multiple characters andokurigana) 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,Hôm naymay be read either askyō"today (informal)" (special fused reading for native word) or askonnichi"these days (formal)" (on'yomi); in formal writing, this will generally be read askonnichi.Multiple readings are common, such as inHeo nước"pork soup", which is commonly pronounced both aston-jiru(mixedon-kun) andbuta-jiru(kun-kun), withtonbeing somewhat more common nationally. Inconsistencies abound—for example,Thịt bògyū-niku"beef" andThịt dêyō-niku"mutton" haveon-onreadings, butHeo thịtbuta-niku"pork" andKê thịttori-niku"poultry" havekun-onreadings.

The main guideline is that a single kanji followed byokurigana(hiraganacharacters that are part of the word)—as used in native verbs and adjectives—alwaysindicateskun'yomi,while kanji compounds (kango) usually useon'yomi,which is usuallykan-on;however, otheron'yomiare also common, andkun'yomiare also commonly used inkango.For a kanji in isolation withoutokurigana,it is typically read using theirkun'yomi,though there are numerous exceptions. For example,Thiết"iron"is usually read with theon'yomitetsurather than thekun'yomikurogane.Chineseon'yomiwhich are not the commonkan-onreading 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 isge-doku(Giải độc,detoxification, anti-poison)(go-on), where(Giải)is usually instead read askai.

Okurigana(Đưa り仮 danh)are used withkun'yomito mark the inflected ending of a native verb or adjective, or by convention. Japanese verbs and adjectives areclosed class,and do not generally admit new words (borrowed Chinese vocabulary, which are nouns, can form verbs by adding-suru(〜する,to do)at the end, and adjectives via〜 の-noor〜な-na,but cannot become native Japanese vocabulary, which inflect). For example:Xích いaka-i"red",Tân しいatara-shii"new",Thấy るmi-ru"(to) see".Okuriganacan be used to indicate whichkun'yomito use, as inThực べるta-beruversusThực うku-u(casual), both meaning "(to) eat", but this is not always sufficient, as inKhai く,which may be read asa-kuorhira-ku,both meaning "(to) open".Sinhis a particularly complicated example, with multiplekunandon'yomi.Okuriganais also used for some nouns and adverbs, as inTình けnasake"sympathy",Tất ずkanarazu"invariably", but not forKimkane"money", for instance.Okuriganais an important aspect of kanji usage in Japanese; see that article for more information onkun'yomiorthography

Kanji occurring in compounds (multi-kanji words)(Thục ngữ,jukugo)are generally read usingon'yomi,especially for four-character compounds (yojijukugo). Though again, exceptions abound, for example,Tình báojōhō"information",Trường họcgakkō"school", andShinkansenshinkansen"bullet train" all follow this pattern. This isolated kanji versus compound distinction gives words for similar concepts completely different pronunciations.Bắc"north" andĐông"east" use thekun'yomikitaandhigashi,being stand-alone characters, butBắc đông"northeast", as a compound, uses theon'yomihokutō.This is further complicated by the fact that many kanji have more than oneon'yomi:Sinhis read asseiinTiên sinhsensei"teacher" but asshōinCả đờiisshō"one's whole life". Meaning can also be an important indicator of reading;Dễis readiwhen it means "simple", but asekiwhen it means "divination", both beingon'yomifor this character.

These rules of thumb have many exceptions.Kun'yomicompound words are not as numerous as those withon'yomi,but neither are they rare. Examples includeGiấy vệ sinhtegami"letter",Ngày dùhigasa"parasol", and the famousThần phongkamikaze"divine wind". Such compounds may also haveokurigana,such asKhông dương げ(also writtenĐường dương げ)karaage"Chinese-style fried chicken" andChiết り giấyorigami,although many of these can also be written with theokuriganaomitted (for example,Không dươngorGấp giấy). In general, compounds coined in Japan using Japanese roots will be read inkun'yomiwhile those imported from China will be read inon'yomi.

Similarly, someon'yomicharacters can also be used as words in isolation:Áiai"love",ThiềnZen,Điểmten"mark, dot". Most of these cases involve kanji that have nokun'yomi,so there can be no confusion, although exceptions do occur. AloneKimmay be read askin"gold" or askane"money, metal"; only context can determine the writer's intended reading and meaning.

Multiple readings have given rise to a number ofhomographs,in some cases having different meanings depending on how they are read. One example isThượng thủ,which can be read in three different ways:jōzu(skilled),uwate(upper part), orkamite(stage left/house right). In addition,Thượng thủ いhas the readingumai(skilled). More subtly,Ngày maihas three different readings, all meaning "tomorrow":ashita(casual),asu(polite), andmyōnichi(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,Tư lập(privately established, esp. school) andThị lập(city established) are both normally pronouncedshi-ritsu;in speech these may be distinguished by the alternative pronunciationswatakushi-ritsuandichi-ritsu.More informally, in legal jargonTrước văn"preamble" andToàn văn"full text" are both pronouncedzen-bun,soTrước vănmay be pronouncedmae-bunfor clarity, as in "Have you memorized the preamble [not 'whole text'] of the constitution?". As in these examples, this is primarily using akun'yomifor one character in a normallyon'yomiterm.

As stated above,jūbakoandyutōreadingsare also not uncommon. Indeed, all four combinations of reading are possible:on-on,kun-kun,kun-onandon-kun.

Legalese

Certain words take different readings depending on whether the context concerns legal matters or not. For example:

Word	Common reading	Legalese reading
Chậm trễ( "negligence" )	ketai	kaitai
Cạnh bán( "auction" )	kyōbai	keibai
Huynh đệ tỷ muội( "siblings" )	kyōdai shimai	keitei shimai
Cảnh giới( "metes and bounds" )	kyōkai	keikai
Cạnh lạc( "acquisition at an auction" )	kyōraku	keiraku
Di ngôn( "will" )	yuigon	igon

Ambiguous readings

In some instances where even context cannot easily provide clarity forhomophones,alternative readings or mixed readings can be used instead of regular readings to avoid ambiguity. For example:

Ambiguous reading	Disambiguated readings
baishun	baishun(Bán xuân,"selling sex", on) kaishun(Mua xuân,"buying sex", yutō)
itoko	jūkeitei(従 huynh đệ,"male cousin", on) jūshimai(従 tỷ muội,"female cousin", on) jūkei(従 huynh,"older male cousin", on) jūshi(従 tỷ,"older female cousin", on) jūtei(従 đệ,"younger male cousin", on) jūmai(従 muội,"younger female cousin", on)
jiten	kotobaten(Từ điển,"word dictionary", yutō) kototen(Sự điển,"encyclopedia", yutō) mojiten(Từ điển,"character dictionary", irregular, frommoji(Văn tự,"character" ))
kagaku	kagaku(Khoa học,"science", on) bakegaku(Hóa học,"chemistry", yutō)
karyō	ayamachiryō(Quá liêu,"administrative fine", yutō) togaryō(Khoa liêu,"misdemeanor fine", yutō)
kōshin	Kinoesaru(Giáp thân,"Greater-Wood-Monkeyyear ", kun) Kinoetatsu(Giáp thần,"Greater-Wood-Dragon year", kun) Kanoesaru(Canh Thân,"Greater-Fire-Monkey year", kun) Kanoetatsu(Canh Thìn,"Greater-Fire-Dragon year", kun)
Shin	Hatashin(Tần,"Qin",irregular, from the alternative readingHataused as a family name) Susumushin(Tấn,"Jin",irregular, from the alternative readingSusumuused as a personal name)
shiritsu	ichiritsu(Thị lập,"municipal", yutō) watakushiritsu(Tư lập,"private", yutō)

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 alternative reading	Word that may be confused with
gishu(Kỹ tay,"assistant engineer", on),alternativelygite,jūbako	gishi(Kỹ sư,"engineer", on)
shuchō(Thủ trưởng,"chief", on),alternativelykubichō,yutō	shichō(Thị trưởng,"mayor", on)

Place names

Several famous place names, includingthose of Japanitself (Nhật BảnNihonor sometimesNippon), those of some cities such asTokyo(Đông KinhTōkyō) andKyoto(Kinh đôKyōto), and those of the main islandsHonshu(Bổn châuHonshū),Kyushu(Cửu ChâuKyūshū),Shikoku(Tứ quốcShikoku), andHokkaido(HokkaidoHokkaidō) are read withon'yomi;however, the majority of Japanese place names are read withkun'yomi:OsakaŌsaka,Thanh sâmAomori,Rương cănHakone.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. TheOsaka(Osaka) andKobe(Thần hộ) baseball team, theHanshin(Phản thần) Tigers, take their name from theon'yomiof the second kanji ofŌsakaand the first ofKōbe.The name of theKeisei(Kinh thành) railway line—linking Tokyo (Đông Kinh) andNarita(Thành điền)—is formed similarly, although the reading ofKinhfromĐông Kinhiskei,despitekyōalready being anon'yomiin the wordTōkyō.

Japanese family namesare also usually read withkun'yomi:Sơn điềnYamada,Điền trungTanaka,Linh mộcSuzuki.Japanesegiven namesoften have very irregular readings. Although they are not typically consideredjūbakooryutō,they often contain mixtures ofkun'yomi,on'yomiandnanori,such asĐại trợDaisuke[on-kun],Hạ mỹNatsumi[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 calledĐịa cầuĀsu( "Earth" ) andThiên sứEnjeru( "Angel" ); neither are common names, and have normal readingschikyūandtenshirespectively. Some common Japanese names can be written in multiple ways, e.g., Akira can be written asLượng,Chương,Minh,Hiển,Chương,Thính,Quang,Tinh,Hoảng,Bân,Sưởng,,Thu lương,Minh lặc,Ngày ngày ngày,Á kỷ lương,An hỉ lươngand many other characters and kanji combinations not listed,Satoshi can be written asThông,Triết,Triết sử,Ngộ,Tá đăng sử,Hiểu,Huấn,Triết sĩ,Triết tư,Mẫn,Dụ,Trí,Tá đăng tư,Tổng,Sử,34,,Trí từ,etc.,and Haruka can be written asDao,Xuân hương,Tình hương,Dao hương,Xuân quả,Tình hạ,Xuân hạ,Xuân giai,and several other possibilities.Common patterns do exist, however, allowing experienced readers to make a good guess for most names. To alleviate any confusion on how to pronounce the names of other Japanese people, most official Japanese documents require Japanese to write their names in bothkanaand kanji.

Chinese place names andChinese personal namesappearing in Japanese texts, if spelled in kanji, are almost invariably read withon'yomi.Especially for older and well-known names, the resulting Japanese pronunciation may differ widely from that used by modern Chinese speakers. For example,Mao Zedong's name is pronounced asMō Takutō(Mao trạch đông)in Japanese, and the name of the legendary Monkey King,Sun Wukong,is pronouncedSon Gokū(Tôn Ngộ Không) in Japanese.

Today, Chinese names that are not well known in Japan are often spelled inkatakanainstead, in a form much more closely approximating the native Chinese pronunciation. Alternatively, they may be written in kanji withkatakanafurigana.Many such cities have names that come from non-Chinese languageslikeMongolianorManchu.Examples of such not-well-known Chinese names include:

English name	Japanese name
	Rōmaji	Katakana	Kanji
Harbin	Harubin	ハルビン	Ha ngươi bang
Ürümqi	Urumuchi	ウルムチ	Ô lỗ mộc tề
Qiqihar	Chichiharu	チチハル	Tề tề ha ngươi
Lhasa	Rasa	ラサ	Kéo tát

Internationally renowned Chinese-named cities tend to imitate the older English pronunciations of their names, regardless of the kanji'son'yomior the Mandarin or Cantonese pronunciation, and can be written in eitherkatakanaor kanji. Examples include:

English name	Mandarin name (pinyin)	Hokkien name (Tâi-lô)	Cantonese name (Yale)	Japanese name
				Kanji	Katakana	Rōmaji
Hong Kong	Xiānggǎng	Hiong-káng/Hiang-káng	Hēung Góng	Hong Kong	ホンコン	Honkon
Macao/Macau	Àomén	Ò-mn̂g/Ò-muî/Ò-bûn	Ou Mún/Ou Mùhn	Macao	マカオ	Makao
Shanghai	Shànghǎi	Siōng-hái/Siǒng-hái/Siāng-hái	Seuhng Hói	Thượng Hải	シャンハイ	Shanhai
Beijing/Peking	Běijīng	Pak-kiann	Bāk Gīng	Bắc Kinh	ペキン	Pekin
Nanjing/Nanking	Nánjīng	Lâm-kiann	Nàahm Gīng	Nam Kinh	ナンキン	Nankin
Taipei	Táiběi	Tâi-pak	Tòih Bāk	Đài Bắc	タイペイ/タイホク	Taipei/Taihoku
Kaohsiung	Gāoxióng/Dǎgǒu	Ko-hiông/Tá-káu/Tánn-káu	Gōu Hùhng/Dá Gáu	Cao hùng/Đánh chó	カオシュン/タカオ	Kaoshun/Takao

Notes:

• Guangzhou, the city, is pronouncedKōshū,while Guangdong, its province, is pronouncedKanton,not*Kōtō(in this case, opting for atō-onreading rather than the usualkan-onreading).
• Kaohsiung was originally pronouncedTakao(or similar) inHokkienand Japanese. It received this writtenname(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 inMỗi ngườihito-bito"people" (more often written with theiteration markasNgười 々), but in rare cases the readings can be unrelated, as intobi-haneru(Nhảy び nhảy ねる,"hop around", more often writtenPhi び nhảy ねる).

Pronunciation assistance

Because of the ambiguities involved, kanji sometimes have their pronunciation for the given context spelled out inruby charactersknown asfurigana,(smallkanawritten above or to the right of the character, e.g.Chấn 仮 danh(ふりがな)) orkumimoji(smallkanawritten in-line after the character). This is especially true in texts for children or foreign learners. It is also used innewspapersandmangafor 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 ofessential kanji.Works of fiction sometimes usefuriganato create new "words" by giving normal kanji non-standard readings, or to attach a foreign word rendered inkatakanaas 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 homophonouswords,not simply individual characters, particularly forkango(withon'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 givingkun'yomifor 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 wordkōshinryō(Hương tân liêu,spice)via the wordskao-ri(Hương り,fragrance),kara-i(Tân い,spicy),andin-ryō(Đồ uống,beverage)—the first two use thekun'yomi,the third is a well-known compound—saying "kaori,karai,ryōas ininryō."

Dictionaries

In dictionaries, both words and individual characters have readings glossed, via various conventions. Native words and Sino-Japanese vocabulary are glossed inhiragana(for bothkunandonreadings), while borrowings (gairaigo)—including modern borrowings from Chinese—are glossed inkatakana;this is the standard writing convention also used infurigana.By contrast, readings for individual characters are conventionally written inkatakanaforonreadings, andhiraganaforkunreadings. Kun readings may further have a separator to indicate which characters areokurigana,and which are considered readings of the character itself. For example, in the entry forThực,the reading corresponding to the basic verbeat(Thực べる,taberu)may be written asた.べる(ta.beru), to indicate thattais the reading of the character itself. Further,kanji dictionariesoften list compounds including irregular readings of a kanji.

Local developments and divergences from Chinese

Since kanji are essentially Chinesehanziused to write Japanese, the majority of characters used in modern Japanese still retain their Chinese meaning, physical resemblance with some of their moderntraditional Chinese characterscounterparts, and a degree of similarity withClassical Chinesepronunciation imported to Japan from the 5th to 9th centuries.Nevertheless, after centuries of development, there is a notable number of kanji used in modern Japanese which have different meaning fromhanziused in modern Chinese. Such differences are the result of:

• the use of characters created in Japan,
• characters that have been given different meanings in Japanese, and
• post-World War IIsimplifications (shinjitai) of the character.

Likewise, the process ofcharacter simplificationinmainland Chinasince the 1950s has resulted in the fact that Japanese speakers who have not studied Chinese may not recognize some simplified characters.

Kokuji

Main article:Kokuji

In Japanese,Kokuji(Quốc tự,"national characters" )refers to Chinese characters made outside of China. Specifically, kanji made in Japan are referred to asWasei kanji(Cùng chế chữ Hán).They are primarily formed in the usual way of Chinese characters, namely by combining existing components, though using a combination that is not used in China. The corresponding phenomenon in Korea is calledgukja(Korean:국자;Hanja:Quốc tự), a cognate name; there are however far fewer Korean-coined characters than Japanese-coined ones.Other languagesusing theChinese family of scriptssometimes have far more extensive systems of native characters, most significantly Vietnamesechữ Nôm,which comprises over 20,000 characters used throughout traditional Vietnamese writing, andZhuangsawndip,which comprises over 10,000 characters, which are still in use.

Kokkun

In addition tokokuji,there are kanji that have been given meanings in Japanese that are different from their original Chinese meanings. These are not consideredkokujibut are instead calledkokkun(Quốc huấn) and include characters such as the following:

Char.	Japanese		Chinese
	Reading	Meaning	Pinyin	Meaning
Đằng	fuji	wisteria	téng	rattan, cane, vine
Hướng	oki	offing,offshore	chōng	rinse, minor river (Cantonese)
Xuân	tsubaki	Camellia japonica	chūn	Toonaspp.
Niêm	ayu	sweetfish	nián	catfish(rare, usually writtenNiêm)
Tiếu	saki	blossom	xiào	smile(rare, usually writtenCười)

Types of kanji by category

Main article:Chinese character classification

Han-dynastyscholarXu Shen,in his 2nd-century dictionaryShuowen Jiezi,classified Chinese characters into six categories (Chinese:Lục thưliùshū,Japanese:Lục thưrikusho). The traditional classification is still taught but is problematic and is 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.

Shōkei moji(Chữ tượng hình)

Shōkei(Mandarin:xiàngxíng) characters arepictographicsketches of the object they represent. For example,Mụcis an eye, whileMộcis a tree. The current forms of the characters are very different from the originals, though their representations are more clear inoracle bone scriptandseal script.These pictographic characters make up only a small fraction of modern characters.

Shiji moji(Chỉ sự văn tự)

Shiji(Mandarin:zhǐshì) characters areideographs,often called "simple ideographs" or "simple indicatives" to distinguish them and tell the difference from compound ideographs (below). They are usually simple graphically and represent an abstract concept such asThượng"up" or "above" andHạ"down" or "below". These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

Kaii moji(Hiểu ý văn tự)

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 isHưu(rest) fromNhân(person radical) andMộc(tree). Another is thekokujiTạp(mountain pass) made fromSơn(mountain),Thượng(up) andHạ(down). These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

Keisei moji(Hình thanh văn tự)

Keisei(Mandarin:xíngshēng) characters are phono-semantic orradical-phonetic compounds, sometimes called "semantic-phonetic", "semasio-phonetic", or "phonetic-ideographic" characters, are by far the largest category, making up about 90% of the characters in the standard lists; however, some of the most frequently used kanji belong to one of the three groups mentioned above, sokeisei mojiwill usually make up less than 90% of the characters in a text. Typically they are made up of two components, one of which (most commonly, but by no means always, the left or top element) suggests the general category of the meaning or semantic context, and the other (most commonly the right or bottom element) approximates the pronunciation. The pronunciation relates to the original Chinese, and may now only be distantly detectable in the modern Japaneseon'yomiof the kanji; it generally has no relation at all tokun'yomi.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.

Tenchū moji(転 lời chú thích tự)

Tenchū(Mandarin:zhuǎnzhù) characters have variously been called "derivative characters", "derivativecognates",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,Lặcis used for 'music' and 'comfort, ease', with different pronunciations in Chinese reflected in the two differenton'yomi,gaku"music" andraku"pleasure".

Kasha moji(仮 mượn văn tự)

Kasha(Mandarin:jiǎjiè) arerebuses,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,Tớiin 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 wheatMạch,originally meant "to come", being akeisei mojihaving '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

See also:Japanese typographic symbols

Theiteration mark(々) is used to indicate that the preceding kanji is to be repeated, functioning similarly to aditto markin English. It is pronounced as though the kanji were written twice in a row, for exampleiroiro(Sắc 々,"various" )andtokidoki(Khi 々,"sometimes" ).This mark also appears in personal and place names, as in thesurnameSasaki (Tá 々 mộc). This symbol is a simplified version of the kanjiĐồng,a variant ofdō(Cùng,"same" ).

Another abbreviated symbol isヶ,in appearance a smallkatakanake,but actually a simplified version of the kanjiCái,a general counter. It is pronouncedkawhen used to indicate quantity (such asSáu ヶ nguyệt,rokkagetsu"six months" ) orgaif used as a genitive (as inQuan ヶ nguyênsekigahara"Sekigahara" ).

The way how these symbols may be produced on a computer depends on the operating system. InmacOS,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 theLatin script,are oftencollatedusing the traditional Chineseradical-and-stroke sortingmethod. In this system, common components of characters are identified; these are calledradicals.Characters are grouped by their primary radical, then ordered by number of pen strokes within radicals. For example, the kanji characterAnh,meaning "cherry", is sorted as a ten-stroke character under the four-stroke primary radicalMộcmeaning "tree". When there is no obvious radical or more than one radical, convention governs which is used for collation.

Other kanji sorting methods, such as theSKIPsystem, have been devised by various authors.

Modern general-purposeJapanese dictionaries(as opposed to specifically character dictionaries) generally collate all entries, including words written using kanji, according to theirkanarepresentations (reflecting the way they are pronounced). Thegojūonordering ofkanais normally used for this purpose.

Kanji education

An image that lists mostjōyō-kanji, according toHalpern's KKLD inde xing system,with kyo-iku kanji color-coded by grade level

Japanese schoolchildren are expected to learn 1,026 basic kanji, thekyōikukanji,before finishing the sixth grade. The order in which these characters are learned is fixed. Thekyōikukanji list is a subset of a larger list, originally of 1,945 kanji and extended to 2,136 in 2010, known as thejōyōkanjirequired for the level of fluency necessary to read newspapers and literature in Japanese. This larger list of characters is to be mastered by the end of the ninth grade.Schoolchildren learn the characters by repetition andradical.

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 tomnemonic-based methods such as those used inJames Heisig's seriesRemembering the Kanji.Other textbooks use methods based on theetymologyof the characters, such as Mathias and Habein'sThe Complete Guide to Everyday Kanjiand Henshall'sA Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters.Pictorialmnemonics,as in the textKanji Pict-o-graphixby Michael Rowley, are also seen.

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation provides theKanji kentei(Nhật Bản chữ Hán năng lực kiểm định thí nghiệmNihon kanji nōryoku kentei shiken;"Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude" ), which tests the ability to read and write kanji. The highest level of theKanji kenteitests about six thousand kanji.

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 Alpha bet
• Cangjie– legendary inventor of Chinese characters

References

Sources

• DeFrancis, John (1990).The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.ISBN0-8248-1068-6.
• Hadamitzky, W.; Spahn, M. (1981).Kanji and Kana.Boston: Tuttle.
• Hannas, William. C. (1997).Asia's Orthographic Dilemma.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.ISBN0-8248-1892-X.
• Kaiser, Stephen (1991). "Introduction to the Japanese Writing System".Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide.Tokyo: Kondansha International.ISBN4-7700-1553-4.
• Miyake, Marc Hideo(2003).Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction.New York, NY; London, England: RoutledgeCurzon.ISBN0-415-30575-6.
• Morohashi, Tetsuji.Đại hán cùng từ điểnDai 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.ISBN4-7700-2068-6.
• Unger, J. Marshall(1996).Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading Between the Lines.Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-510166-9.

External links

• Jim Breen's WWWJDIC serverused 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 theElectronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies,August 19, 2005.
• Jisho—Online Japanese dictionary

Glyph conversion

• A simple Shinjitai—Kyūjitai converter
• A practical Shinjitai—Kyūjitai—Simplified Chinese character converter
• A complex Shinjitai—Kyūjitai converter
• A downloadable Shinjitai—Kyūjitai—Simplified Chinese character converterArchivedFebruary 10, 2009, at theWayback Machine