JAPANESE LANGUAGE (2)
Colourful Japanese Writing System
The Japanese may not be original creators of things but are good at combining things into something new. The kanji (meaning “Chinese characters”) is not an exception. Inspired by the original Chinese characters imported in the 5 to 6th century, people created their own version of letters and named them “kanji”.
Here’s how they did. First, as an excellent combiner, the ancient Japanese divided Chinese characters into radicals (components) and then re-combined them to form unique new characters not found in China. But that’s not all. That kanji system then mothered Japanese alphabets called hiragana and katakana.
The Merit of Multi-Way Writing System
With kanji, hiragana and katakana, the Japanese completed its unique three-way writing system. Moreover, they also didn’t hesitate to add Latin alphabets (or romaji). Thus, contrary to other languages based on a single writing method (e.g., Latin alphabet in English and other European languages), Japanese writing looks diversified, but convenient to intuitively separate or accentuate individual words, as shown in the following example:
Example A
花香はビジネスを立ち上げ、
会社をHANAKAと名付けた。
Hanaka started her business, named her company "HANAKA".
In the above example, red portions represent kanji. Katakana and hiragana are in blue and black, while romaji, in green. Then, you may wonder what would happen if the above example uses a single writing system? OK, let me try. From 1 to 4, the sentence shows description in kanji, hiragana, katakana, and romaji, respectively:
-
花香？？？立？上？、
会社？？名付？。
- はなかはびじねすをたちあげ、かいしゃをはなかとなづけた。
-
ハナカハビジネスヲタチアゲ、カイシャヲハナカトナヅケタ。
-
HANAKA BIJINESU WO TACHIAGE KAISHA WO HANAKA TO NAZUKETA。
Now, you’ll notice those question marks in writing 1. They represent ‘hiatuses’ because there are no kanjis for the noun “business” and other grammatical particles. Namely, since kanji is not an alphabet, all Japanese words are not expressible in kanji.
As for writings 2 and 3, they are in hiragana and katakana. But you’ll find them hard to separate individual words — just like an old English that didn’t use spaces (delimiters) between words. But in multi-way writing using different letter types (like in Example A), it’s easy to isolate each word (almost intuitive), and so, no delimiters are necessary.
Kanji Expressing Concept or Meaning
Like Chinese characters, the kanji is an ideogram, and each character has a specific meaning. For instance, the name 花香 means “flower fragrance”, but its meaning is lost once it’s written in an alphabet (はなか, ハナカ, or HANAKA), which can only represent the sound. When written in kanji, however, the reader can also enjoy its meaning in addition to its sound.
In the same way, 会社 (company) comprises two characters 会 and 社, meaning “meet” and “a group of people gathering for a specific purpose”. While 立 and 上 stand for “stand, build” and “up, raise”, 名付 means “give a name to something”.
If you're interested in more kanjis, check this page: rondely.com/japan/lrn/kanji/index.htm (sister site).
Katakana Rampantly Churning Imported Words
We’ve seen the Japanese language has two phonograms: hiragana and katakana. While the first serves as ‘the base layer’ of a rich Japanese writing system, the latter plays a vital role in turning loan words into Gairaigo (imported words). A new English word heard yesterday, for example, comes into people’s sight today through transcription in katakana.
In addition to “business” in the above example, here's only a part of a long list of katakana-transcribed imported words:
- レジャー (← leisure)
- スポーツ (← sports)
- コントロール (← control)
- ワクチン (← vaccine)
- ソーシャルメディア (← social media)
- トレーニング (← training)
- ハラスメント (← harassment)
- ソフトウェア (← software)
- サステナビリティ (← sustainability)
- セレンディピティ (← serendipity)
Since March 2006. Last update July 31, 2021. Copyright (C) Tuben. All rights reserved.
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