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| Are you taking Japanese currently? |
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69% |
[ 16 ] |
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| Total Votes : 23 |
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 Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:04 pm
I've been wondering why Kanji is needed to learn Japanese. From my knowledge, you can spell out complete sentences and thoughts in Japanese from Hiragana and Katakana alone.
Granted, I don't really have any credibility in Japanese. (For now, anyway.)
I don't take lessons, the only Japanese I can probably churn out are things I pick up from subbed anime, and I don't even know half the kana in my Kana de Manga book yet. (Only the vowels, "Sa" and "ra", because I got lazy and so I could "spell" out my name. =P). So I must ask you to not birng up any things a student would know (verb tenses, advanced vocabulary, etc.)
So, I'm thinking that the only uses for Kanji is for word parts that can't be formed from kana characters, and to serve as the equivalent for "$100 words" in English. (Although I do know that they are blended, not sure how frequently. Like "Chan" is formed from "chi", "ya", and "n". Since "Cha" isn't a kana character. I'm not talking about how they are combined normally.)
Please, anyone with experience, care to correct me. I just want to get a couple basic concepts down so I'll be a pro when I start my classes in a couple of years. Thanks! (Or should I say "arigatou"?)
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:49 pm
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:53 pm
This is a very slow forum, don't bump.
Kanji is used for many native words to tell the difference between those that sound a like especially when you can't tell by context. Also, they got kanji from the Chinese and made kana from the kanji, but just kept the kanji later on.
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:57 pm
Sorry for the bump.
I'm not quite sure what it means when you say "Kanji is used for many native words to tell the difference between those that sound a like especially when you can't tell by context. " Could you please explain it further?
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:23 pm
There are many homonyms? and heteronyms? in Japanese. When first bringing them up you might not always be able to tell what someone means.
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:28 pm
For instance, the words sun and son are pronounced the same way. We are able to tell the difference by the way it is spelled. Japanese also have words that are pronounced the same way. They are able to tell the difference because there are different kanji that represent them.
Hope that helps whee heart
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:33 pm
Ｙｏｕ ｍａｄｅ ｉｔ ｃｌｅａｒｅｒ ｔｈａｎ Ｉ ｄｉｄ． whee あんがとう。
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:47 pm
Japanese *could* be written out entirely in Kana, but it would be very difficult to read and understand. One syllable can mean several things, or be the root of many verbs. Take "ki"
ki = tree
ki = air
kiiru= yellow
kiku = to hear
kiru = to cut (class 1 verb)
kiru = to wear (class 2 verb)
kimasu = polite form of kuru, to come
There some tongue twister that I don't have the energy to translate that's something like
"I heard a boy wearing a yellow jacket come and cut down the tree" which as you can imagine would be a lot of ki's.
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:29 am
I think I understand now. Thanks. smile
By the way, I have another question. Do the characters "wi" and "we" exist in kana? My book says they don't, but this sheet my friend downloaded for me says they do. I'm not sure.
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:31 am
Freakezette Japanese *could* be written out entirely in Kana, but it would be very difficult to read and understand. One syllable can mean several things, or be the root of many verbs. Take "ki" ki = tree ki = air kiiru= yellow kiku = to hear kiru = to cut (class 1 verb) kiru = to wear (class 2 verb) kimasu = polite form of kuru, to come There some tongue twister that I don't have the energy to translate that's something like "I heard a boy wearing a yellow jacket come and cut down the tree" which as you can imagine would be a lot of ki's. So I'm guesing that Kanji is used to reduce the confusion when context clues don't work.
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 8:19 am
Sanee I think I understand now. Thanks. smile By the way, I have another question. Do the characters "wi" and "we" exist in kana? My book says they don't, but this sheet my friend downloaded for me says they do. I'm not sure. Not anymore. My character map also has them. ゐゑヰヱ
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 12:25 pm
You have to understand that the Japanese language existed as speech before it was written down, during this time the Japanese people developed sounds that were appropriate. Later Chinese Buddhist monks came and taught the Japanese how to write Chinese. Chinese developed from pictographs that represented the meaning, so this gave each symbol a full meaning as well as meaning when combined with other symbols. The Japanese used this, but it could not express all of their preexisting words and sounds in the same manner so the developed the kana syllabaries in order to have all of their spoken sounds in a written form. This developed into the hybrid we see today. While you could express all of Japanese in Kana it would be very inefficient (you can garner meaning from a few kanji much more quickly then a string of kana) and ambiguous (the reason you don't have spaces in Japanese sentences is the kanji and kana break it up into parts). This was my understanding of the history of the language and why it is used the way it is.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:09 pm
Oh yes, about 'chan', that can be written in kana. Put the CHI sound with a slightly smaller YA sound and then add an N.
ちゃん
ち、や、ん
Same with like 'ja/ju/jo' and like the 'consonant-ya's like 'hya' or 'byo'.
Hya = hi + small ya
ひゃ＝ひ＋や
Ju = ji + small yu
じゅ＝じ＋ゆ
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Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:55 pm
Thanks to everyone for the help. I now have a good grasp on Kanji, plus a couple assorted subjects now.
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Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:45 am
Sanee I've been wondering why Kanji is needed to learn Japanese. From my knowledge, you can spell out complete sentences and thoughts in Japanese from Hiragana and Katakana alone. Granted, I don't really have any credibility in Japanese. (For now, anyway.) I don't take lessons, the only Japanese I can probably churn out are things I pick up from subbed anime, and I don't even know half the kana in my Kana de Manga book yet. (Only the vowels, "Sa" and "ra", because I got lazy and so I could "spell" out my name. =P). So I must ask you to not birng up any things a student would know (verb tenses, advanced vocabulary, etc.) So, I'm thinking that the only uses for Kanji is for word parts that can't be formed from kana characters, and to serve as the equivalent for "$100 words" in English. (Although I do know that they are blended, not sure how frequently. Like "Chan" is formed from "chi", "ya", and "n". Since "Cha" isn't a kana character. I'm not talking about how they are combined normally.) Please, anyone with experience, care to correct me. I just want to get a couple basic concepts down so I'll be a pro when I start my classes in a couple of years. Thanks! (Or should I say "arigatou"?) Kanji is considered proper. It is what everything is most commonly written in. Hiragana is the opposite. It is seen as informal and is generally like how we would write some of our slang. Romanji is usually for conveinience of those who can't read any Japanese symbols (usually Americans).
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