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Takanori
Tomita's Japanese Tips - Aug.2005
Topic: What is Kanji Symbols
Issued by DSFY.com - http://www.dsfy.com
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Hi
This is Takanori Tomita from DSFY.com
Today's monthly special newsletter is about
about Kanji Symbols.
What is Kanji?
Kanji is a set of characters used in the
Japanese writing system, and originates from
Ancient China. Interestingly enough, however,
Kanji used in Japan is different from the
one in China in so many ways, as some of the
Kanji characters had to be changed in their
forms, meanings, pronunciation to represent
things and customs indigenous to Japan.
In addition, Hiragana and Katakana, which
are other two types of the Japanese writing
system, were also created.
As a result, Japanese Kanji evolved differently
from in China.
What
is Japanese Kanji?
Japanese Kanji is a set of ideographic alphabets
which represents concepts and ideas.
As contrast with English alphabets, Japanese
Kanji has three distictive features; form,
sound, and meaning, which of these features
are some of the main reasons why so many western
people are attracted to Kanji symbol.
At the same time, because each Kanji symbol
has at least more than two ways to pronunce
it, making a right choice in pronuncing a
Kanji symbol in relation to Hiragana scripts
consisting of a word can be confusing to non-native
speakers of Japanese. For example, there are
mainly two ways to pronunce a Kanji script,
which means water.
One way to pronunce it is "mizu,"
and another way is "sui." The former
is called "kun-reading," which relates
to the meaning of the Kanji, while the latter
is "on-reading," which is close
to the sound of the corresponding Kanji used
in China.
Every Kanji character has both kun-reading
and on-reading.
For more information about Japanese kanji
symbols, please click the following links:
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100%
Accurate Japanese Kanji Translation
Looking for 100% Accurate Japanese kanji symbols?
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Regards
Takanori Tomita
DSFY.com
"DeSign For You - Japanese Symbols"
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