Kanji (written as 漢字) are borrowed Chinese characters found in modern Japan's writing system (along with hiragana and katakana).
Chinese characters first came to Japan on articles imported from China around 57 AD. The Japanese language itself had no written form at the time kanji was introduced. Chinese characters also came to be used to write Japanese words, resulting in the modern kana syllabaries.
Sound/Reading
Because of the way kanji have been adopted into Japanese, a single character may be used to write one or more different words (or, in most cases, morphemes). From the reader's point, kanji are said to have one or more different "readings". Deciding which reading is meant depends on context, intended meaning, use in compounds, and even location in the sentence. Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings. These readings are normally categorized as either on'yomi (or on) or kun'yomi (or kun).
On'yomi
The on'yomi(written as 音読み), the Sino-Japanese reading, is a Japanese approximation of the Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced.
Generally, on'yomi are classified into four groups
- Go-on (written as 呉音 "Wu sound") readings are from the pronunciation during the Southern and Northern Dynasties or Baekje, an ancient state on the Korean Peninsula, during the 5th and 6th centuries. Go means the Wu region (in the vicinity of modern Shanghai).
- Kan-on (written as 漢音 "Han sound") readings are from the pronunciation during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th to 9th centuries, primarily from the standard speech of the capital, Chang'an (written as 長安 or 长安).
- Tō-on (written as 唐音 "Tang sound") readings are from the pronunciations of later dynasties, such as the Song (宋) and Ming (明). They cover all readings adopted from the Heian era (平安) to the Edo period (江戸).
- Kan'yō-on (written as 慣用音 "Idiomatic sound") readings, which are mistaken or changed readings of the kanji that have become accepted into the language.
Kun'yomi
The kun'yomi (written as 訓読み), Japanese reading, or native reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a native Japanese word, or yamato kotoba, that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. As with on'yomi, there can be multiple kun readings for the same kanji, and some kanji have no kun'yomi at all.
For instance, the kanji for east, (東) has the on reading tō. However, Japanese already had two words for "east": higashi and azuma
Kokuji (written as 国字 "national characters") are characters particular to Japan.Kokuji are also known as wasei kanji (written as 和製漢字 "Chinese characters made in Japan"). There are hundreds of kokuji. Many are rarely used, but a number have become important additions to the written Japanese language. These include
- 峠 (とうげ tōge "mountain pass")
- 榊 (さかき sakaki "tree, genus Cleyera")
- 畑 (はたけ hatake "field of crops")
- 辻 (つじ tsuji "crossroads, street")
- 働 (どう dō, はたら hatara(ku) "work")
- 腺 (せん sen, "gland"). This character has been introduced to China
Joyo Kanji
The Jōyō kanji (written as 常用漢字) are 1,945 characters consisting of all the Kyōiku kanji, plus an additional 939 kanji taught in junior high and high school. The Jōyō kanji were introduced in 1981. They replaced an older list of 1,850 characters known as the General-use kanji ("tōyō kanji" written as 当用漢字) introduced in 1946. The Japanese National Kanji Conference will add 11 new characters to the list, totaling 1,956, to be enforced by 2010.
General
Japanese school children are expected to learn 1,006 basic kanji characters, the kyōiku kanji, before finishing the sixth grade. The highest level of the Kanji kentei tests about 6,000 kanji. |
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