DOCSLIB.ORG

前書き | Introduction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
前書き | Introduction 前書き | INTRODUCTION Objectives This chapter provides a general overview of the Japanese language, and an introduction to its sound and writing systems. I. Japanese Language (An overview) II. Japanese Writing System III. Speech Sounds IV. Sound Units V. Writing System (A Detailed Introduction) Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji VI. The Sentence Structure of Japanese Introduction 1 I. Japanese language Japanese is a language spoken by people in Japan and some descendants of the Japanese who have immigrated to communities in countries around the world, for example Brazil, Hawaii, Northern California, and North Sydney, Australia. II. Writing System (An Overview) Japanese is written using a combination of hiragana, katakana, and Chinese characters (kanji). All Japanese writing scripts were derived from Chinese characters over 1000 years ago. Hiragana and katakana are characters that have been simplified tremendously and stripped of meaning. They are syllabaries representing the sounds of the Japanese language. Kanji are ideograms, used to write words. The Japanese syllabaries hiragana and katakana consist of 46 characters each, consisting of vowel sounds (-a, i, -u, -e, -o), consonant plus vowel sounds, and a syllabic -n. Diacritical marks (the “ten-ten”, or “small circle”) may be added to make “voiced” sounds. Finally, “glides,” or sounds with -ya, -yu, and -yo, in words such as “Tokyo” or “Kyoto” are indicated in writing with “small -ya, -yu, or -yo” following hiragana in the --i line. See Section V in this introduction for a detailed introduction to hiragana, katakana. There will be also be a more detailed section on kanji later in this introduction, in addition to the kanji sections found in each chapter. III. Speech Sounds All human language consists of two basic categories of sounds, consonants and vowels. Consonants are sounds created with friction in the mouth. The initial sounds [p] and [b] in the following words, pig and book, are created by the friction between the lips and the exhalation of air from the lungs. What makes [p] and [b] sound different is the state of the speaker’s vocal folds; the vocal folds do not vibrate when [p] is pronounced while they do vibrate when [b] is pronounced. Sounds produced by the vibration of vocal folds are called voiced sounds, whereas the sounds produced without vibration are called voiceless sounds. Vowels are sounds created without any friction in the mouth. The inventory of Japanese speech sounds is smaller than in English. There are 23 consonants and 5 vowels in Japanese vs. 26 consonants and 12 vowels in English, which is to say that the Japanese language lacks some sounds that exist in English. Consequently, many Japanese native speakers find it difficult to produce consonant sounds such as the ones found in the initial position of the following words, think, they, victory, rabbit since these sounds do not exist in Japanese, their native language. By contrast there are very few sounds in Japanese that pose problems for native speakers of English, but take the time to work on your pronunciation. IV. Sound Units Words in any languages are formed with a certain sequence of consonants (C) and vowels (V) and can be organized into an abstract sound unit called a syllable. For example, the English word “stripper” composed of two syllables, “strip” and “per”. English syllable structure can be quite complex, including syllables with CCCVC as the structure, as you can see in the e example “stripper.” The first syllable starts with three Introduction 2 consonants [s-t-r], followed by a vowel [i] and then another consonant [p] at the end). In contrast with English, the Japanese syllable structure is very simple, having only three patterns, V (vowels by themselves, as in the first syllable of the word atama—head), CV (in words such as Toyota, which consists of three CV syllables) and a consonant by itself. (The consonant-only syllable structure is restricted to the so-called syllabic N (as in Honda or pen, or the syllabic beat that appears with so-called “double consonants.) V. Writing System (A detailed introduction) Above we mentioned that the Japanese language is written using a combination of hiragana, katakana, and Chinese characters (kanji) and that all of the Japanese writing scripts were derived from Chinese characters over 1000 years ago. In general, each of the scripts are used as follows: Category Appearance Usage hiragana “curvy” All sounds in Japanese; typically used for particles, inflectional endings (“conjugations”) of verbs, adjectives and the like, and some words that are typically not written in kanji katakana “angular” While katakana can be used to write all sounds in Japanese, it is typically used to write borrowed words, and onomatopoeia kanji Chinese Characters Kanji are generally used to write words, such as nouns, and the roots of verbs and adjectives The Japanese syllabaries hiragana and katakana consist of 46 characters each, consisting of vowel sounds (-a, i, -u, -e, -o), consonant plus vowel sounds, and a syllabic -n. Diacritical marks (the “ten-ten”, or “small circle) may be added to make “voiced” sounds. Finally, “glides,” or sounds with -ya, -yu, and -yo, in words such as “Tokyo” or “Kyoto” are indicated in writing with “small -ya, -yu, or -yo” following hiragana in the --i line. In addition to the hiragana and katakana syllabaries, the Japanese also use kanji (Chinese characters) as part of the orthographical system. At present, there are 2,136 じょうようかんじ jōyō kanji ( 常 用 漢 字 regular-use kanji) plus an additional 983 kanji that may be used to write personal names. Kanji are ideographs, representing semantic units. In Japanese they may be pronounced according to their so-called Chinese pronunciation, or their so-called Japanese pronunciation. You will be learning approximately 15 Chinese characters each chapter. A single sentence may contain all of the writing forms; some may even have roman letters used to write words or expressions. Look at the sentence below: try to determine which elements are hiragana, which katakana, and which are Chinese characters. 私 は コンピューター科 の 先生 です。 学 Introduction 3 Watashi wa konpyuutaa kagaku no sensei desu. (particle) As for me (topic), I am a computer science instructor. Familiarize yourself with the layout of the hiragana chart as you memorize the hiragana. The layout itself is a memory aid. The chart shows a grid of 5 base vowels plus the 10 base consonant combinations. Notice that some boxes are empty. This means that the sound/symbol combination doesn’t exist in modern Japanese. More complex sounds are indicated with diacritical marks or hiragana combinations, as we will see later in the Introduction. Your teacher will probably refer to hiragana in the “k” line, for example, or in the “m” line. A. Hiragana File Intro-1 k s t n h m Y r w n a あ か さ た な は ま や ら わ ん i い き し ち に ひ み り u う く す つ ぬ ふ む ゆ る e え け せ て ね へ め れ o お こ そ と の ほ も よ ろ を In general, Japanese pronunciation is straightforward. Vowels are pronounced like vowels in Spanish or Italian, and consonants have almost the same value as in English, though most are not enounced as forcefully as in English. The charts below provide the hiragana symbol, its common Romaji equivalent, its pronunciation, and some English words that contain sounds with the approximate pronunciation. The chart will also identify key similarities and differences if they exist. The Japanese sound system is as follows: Vowels あ [a] Sounds like [a] in “father”, but shorter い [i] Sounds like [i] in “beat” or “eat,” but shorter う [u] Sounds like [u] in “boot” or “oops,” but shorter, and the lips aren’t rounded え [e] Sounds like [e] in “pen” or “west” お [o] Sounds like [o] in “horde” or “go,” but it is shorter and the lips are rounded The base vowel sounds can be combined with the following consonant sounds: [k], [s], [t], [n], [h], [m], [y], [r], and [w], and with the following voiced consonants: [g], [z], [d], [b], and [p]. The remaining hiragana indicate syllables consisting of these consonant + vowel combinations, or with additional more complex combinations. k-line か [ka] Sounds like [k] in “cat” or “karate” き [ki] Sounds like [k] in “key” or “keep” Introduction 4 く [ku] Sounds like the [k] in “coo” or “coop” け [ke] Sounds like [k] in “kept” こ [ko] Sounds like [k] in “coat” [k] sounds in Japanese are like the [k] in English, but are a little lighter, articulated a bit further forward in the mouth, and in the case of く and こ without rounding the lips. s-line さ [sa] Sounds like [s] in “sake” (rice wine) or “sat” し [shi] Sounds like [shi] in “sheep” or “she” す [su] Sounds like the [su] in “soup” せ [se] Sounds like [se] in “cent” or “septic” そ [so] Sounds like the [so] sound in “soap” or “soak” In general, the [s] sounds are like English, but notice that there is a sound change when an [s] sound comes before an [i] sound. Then it is pronounced like the English word “she.” Articulate the sound further forward in your mouth, and don’t aspirate the initial sounds as much. t-line た [ta] Sounds like [t] in “tap” or “attack” ち [chi] Sounds like [chi] in “cheap” or “chip” つ [tsu] Sounds like the [tsu] in “eats” or “it’s” て [te] Sounds like [te] in “tepid” or “tent” or “tsetse” と [to] Sounds like the [to] sound in “tote” or “toe” The [t] line sounds are like English but there are two combinations where there are sound changes.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Study of Old Documents of Hokkaido and Kuril Ainu
    NINJAL International Symposium 2018 Approaches to Endangered Languages in Japan and Northeast Asia, August 6-8 The study of old documents of Hokkaido and Kuril Ainu: Promise and Challenges Tomomi Sato (Hokkaido U) & Anna Bugaeva (TUS/NINJAL) [email protected] [email protected]) Introduction: Ainu • AINU (isolate, North Japan, moribund) • Is the only non-Japonic lang. of Japan. • Major dialect groups : Hokkaido (moribund), Sakhalin (extinct since 1993), Kuril (extinct since the end of XIX). • Was also spoken in Tōhoku till mid XVIII. • Hokkaido Ainu dialects: Southwestern (well documented) Northeastern (less documented) • Is not used in daily conversation since the 1950s. • Ethnical Ainu: 100,000. 2 Fig. 2 Major language families in Northeast Asia （excluding Sinitic） Amuric Mongolic Tungusic Ainuic Koreanic Japonic • Ainu shares only few features with Northeast Asian languages. • Ainu is typologically “more like a morphologically reduced version of a North American language.” (Johanna Nichols p.c.). • This is due to the strongly head-marking character of Ainu (Bugaeva, to appear). Why is it important to study Ainu? • Ainu culture is widely regarded as a direct descendant of the Jōmon culture which was spread in the Japanese archipelago in the Prehistoric time from about 14,000 BC. • Ainu is the only surviving Jōmon language; there had been other Jōmon lgs too: about 300 lgs (Janhunen 2002), cf. 10 lgs (Whitman, p.c.) . • Ainu is likely to be much more typical of what languages were like in Northeast Asia several millennia ago than the picture we would get from Chinese, Japanese or Korean. • Focusing on Ainu can help us understand a period of northeast Asian history when political, cultural and linguistic units were very different to what they have been since the rise of the great historically-attested states of East Asia.
    [Show full text]
  • Man'yogana.Pdf (574.0Kb)
    Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies http://journals.cambridge.org/BSO Additional services for Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here The origin of man'yogana John R. BENTLEY Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 64 / Issue 01 / February 2001, pp 59 ­ 73 DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X01000040, Published online: 18 April 2001 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0041977X01000040 How to cite this article: John R. BENTLEY (2001). The origin of man'yogana. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 64, pp 59­73 doi:10.1017/S0041977X01000040 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/BSO, IP address: 131.156.159.213 on 05 Mar 2013 The origin of man'yo:gana1 . Northern Illinois University 1. Introduction2 The origin of man'yo:gana, the phonetic writing system used by the Japanese who originally had no script, is shrouded in mystery and myth. There is even a tradition that prior to the importation of Chinese script, the Japanese had a native script of their own, known as jindai moji ( , age of the gods script). Christopher Seeley (1991: 3) suggests that by the late thirteenth century, Shoku nihongi, a compilation of various earlier commentaries on Nihon shoki (Japan's first official historical record, 720 ..), circulated the idea that Yamato3 had written script from the age of the gods, a mythical period when the deity Susanoo was believed by the Japanese court to have composed Japan's first poem, and the Sun goddess declared her son would rule the land below.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry Spells, Truth Acts, and a Medieval Buddhist Poetics of the Supernatural
    Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 32/: –33 © 2005 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture R. Keller Kimbrough Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry Spells, Truth Acts, and a Medieval Buddhist Poetics of the Supernatural The supernatural powers of Japanese poetry are widely documented in the lit- erature of Heian and medieval Japan. Twentieth-century scholars have tended to follow Orikuchi Shinobu in interpreting and discussing miraculous verses in terms of ancient (arguably pre-Buddhist and pre-historical) beliefs in koto- dama 言霊, “the magic spirit power of special words.” In this paper, I argue for the application of a more contemporaneous hermeneutical approach to the miraculous poem-stories of late-Heian and medieval Japan: thirteenth- century Japanese “dharani theory,” according to which Japanese poetry is capable of supernatural effects because, as the dharani of Japan, it contains “reason” or “truth” (kotowari) in a semantic superabundance. In the first sec- tion of this article I discuss “dharani theory” as it is articulated in a number of Kamakura- and Muromachi-period sources; in the second, I apply that the- ory to several Heian and medieval rainmaking poem-tales; and in the third, I argue for a possible connection between the magico-religious technology of Indian “Truth Acts” (saccakiriyā, satyakriyā), imported to Japan in various sutras and sutra commentaries, and some of the miraculous poems of the late- Heian and medieval periods. keywords: waka – dharani – kotodama – katoku setsuwa – rainmaking – Truth Act – saccakiriyā, satyakriyā R. Keller Kimbrough is an Assistant Professor of Japanese at Colby College. In the 2005– 2006 academic year, he will be a Visiting Research Fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.
    [Show full text]
  • SUPPORTING the CHINESE, JAPANESE, and KOREAN LANGUAGES in the OPENVMS OPERATING SYSTEM by Michael M. T. Yau ABSTRACT the Asian L
    SUPPORTING THE CHINESE, JAPANESE, AND KOREAN LANGUAGES IN THE OPENVMS OPERATING SYSTEM By Michael M. T. Yau ABSTRACT The Asian language versions of the OpenVMS operating system allow Asian-speaking users to interact with the OpenVMS system in their native languages and provide a platform for developing Asian applications. Since the OpenVMS variants must be able to handle multibyte character sets, the requirements for the internal representation, input, and output differ considerably from those for the standard English version. A review of the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean writing systems and character set standards provides the context for a discussion of the features of the Asian OpenVMS variants. The localization approach adopted in developing these Asian variants was shaped by business and engineering constraints; issues related to this approach are presented. INTRODUCTION The OpenVMS operating system was designed in an era when English was the only language supported in computer systems. The Digital Command Language (DCL) commands and utilities, system help and message texts, run-time libraries and system services, and names of system objects such as file names and user names all assume English text encoded in the 7-bit American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) character set. As Digital's business began to expand into markets where common end users are non-English speaking, the requirement for the OpenVMS system to support languages other than English became inevitable. In contrast to the migration to support single-byte, 8-bit European characters, OpenVMS localization efforts to support the Asian languages, namely Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, must deal with a more complex issue, i.e., the handling of multibyte character sets.
    [Show full text]
  • Problematika České Transkripce Japonštiny a Pravidla Jejího Užívání Nihongo 日本語 社会 Šakai Fudži 富士 Ivona Barešová, Monika Dytrtová Momidži Tókjó もみ じ 東京 Čotto ち ょっ と
    チェ コ語 翼 čekogo cubasa šin’jó 信用 Problematika české transkripce japonštiny a pravidla jejího užívání nihongo 日本語 社会 šakai Fudži 富士 Ivona Barešová, Monika Dytrtová momidži Tókjó もみ じ 東京 čotto ち ょっ と PROBLEMATIKA ČESKÉ TRANSKRIPCE JAPONŠTINY A PRAVIDLA JEJÍHO UŽÍVÁNÍ Ivona Barešová Monika Dytrtová Spolupracovala: Bc. Mária Ševčíková Oponenti: prof. Zdeňka Švarcová, Dr. Mgr. Jiří Matela, M.A. Tento výzkum byl umožněn díky účelové podpoře na specifi cký vysokoškolský výzkum udělené roku 2013 Univerzitě Palackého v Olomouci Ministerstvem školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy ČR (FF_2013_044). Neoprávněné užití tohoto díla je porušením autorských práv a může zakládat občanskoprávní, správněprávní, popř. trestněprávní odpovědnost. 1. vydání © Ivona Barešová, Monika Dytrtová, 2014 © Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2014 ISBN 978-80-244-4017-0 Ediční poznámka V publikaci je pro přepis japonských slov užito české transkripce, s výjimkou jejich výskytu v anglic kém textu, kde se objevuje původní transkripce anglická. Japonská jména jsou uváděna v pořadí jméno – příjmení, s výjimkou jejich uvedení v bibliogra- fi ckých citacích, kde se jejich pořadí řídí citační normou. Pokud není uvedeno jinak, autorkami překladů citací a parafrází jsou autorky této práce. V textu jsou použity následující grafi cké prostředky. Fonologický zápis je uveden standardně v šikmých závorkách // a fonetický v hranatých []. Fonetické symboly dle IPA jsou použity v rámci kapi toly 5. V případě, že není nutné zaznamenávat jemné zvukové nuance dané hlásky nebo že není kladen důraz na zvukové rozdíly mezi jed- notlivými hláskami, je jinde v textu, kde je to možné, z důvodu usnadnění porozumění užito namísto těchto specifi ckých fonetických symbolů písmen české abecedy, např.
    [Show full text]
  • Hiragana Chart
    ひらがな Hiragana Chart W R Y M H N T S K VOWEL ん わ ら や ま は な た さ か あ A り み ひ に ち し き い I る ゆ む ふ ぬ つ す く う U れ め へ ね て せ け え E を ろ よ も ほ の と そ こ お O © 2010 Michael L. Kluemper et al. Beginning Japanese, Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. All rights reserved. www.TimeForJapanese.com. 1 Beginning Japanese 名前: ________________________ 1－1 Hiragana Activity Book 日付: ＿＿＿月 ＿＿＿日 一、 Practice: あいうえお かきくけこ がぎぐげご O E U I A お え う い あ あ お え う い あ お う あ え い あ お え う い お う い あ お え あ KO KE KU KI KA こ け く き か か こ け く き か こ け く く き か か こ き き か こ こ け か け く く き き こ け か © 2010 Michael L. Kluemper et al. Beginning Japanese, Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. All rights reserved. www.TimeForJapanese.com. 2 GO GE GU GI GA ご げ ぐ ぎ が が ご げ ぐ ぎ が ご ご げ ぐ ぐ ぎ ぎ が が ご げ ぎ が ご ご げ が げ ぐ ぐ ぎ ぎ ご げ が 二、 Fill in each blank with the correct HIRAGANA. SE N SE I KI A RA NA MA E 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Handy Katakana Workbook.Pdf
    First Edition HANDY KATAKANA WORKBOOK An Introduction to Japanese Writing: KANA THIS IS A SUPPLEMENT FOR BEGINNING LEVEL JAPANESE LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION. \ FrF!' '---~---- , - Y. M. Shimazu, Ed.D. -----~---- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENlS vii STUDYSHEET#l 1 A,I,U,E, 0, KA,I<I, KU,KE, KO, GA,GI,GU,GE,GO, N WORKSHEET #1 2 PRACTICE: A, I,U, E, 0, KA,KI, KU,KE, KO, GA,GI,GU, GE,GO, N WORKSHEET #2 3 MORE PRACTICE: A, I, U, E,0, KA,KI,KU, KE, KO, GA,GI,GU,GE,GO, N WORKSHEET #~3 4 ADDmONAL PRACTICE: A,I,U, E,0, KA,KI, KU,KE, KO, GA,GI,GU,GE,GO, N STUDYSHEET #2 5 SA,SHI,SU,SE, SO, ZA,JI,ZU,ZE,ZO, TA, CHI, TSU, TE,TO, DA, DE,DO WORI<SHEEI' #4 6 PRACTICE: SA,SHI,SU,SE, SO, ZA,II, ZU,ZE,ZO, TA, CHI, 'lSU,TE,TO, OA, DE,DO WORI<SHEEI' #5 7 MORE PRACTICE: SA,SHI,SU,SE,SO, ZA,II, ZU,ZE, W, TA, CHI, TSU, TE,TO, DA, DE,DO WORKSHEET #6 8 ADDmONAL PRACI'ICE: SA,SHI,SU,SE, SO, ZA,JI, ZU,ZE,ZO, TA, CHI,TSU,TE,TO, DA, DE,DO STUDYSHEET #3 9 NA,NI, NU,NE,NO, HA, HI,FU,HE, HO, BA, BI,BU,BE,BO, PA, PI,PU,PE,PO WORKSHEET #7 10 PRACTICE: NA,NI, NU, NE,NO, HA, HI,FU,HE,HO, BA,BI, BU,BE, BO, PA, PI,PU,PE,PO WORKSHEET #8 11 MORE PRACTICE: NA,NI, NU,NE,NO, HA,HI, FU,HE, HO, BA,BI,BU,BE, BO, PA,PI,PU,PE,PO WORKSHEET #9 12 ADDmONAL PRACTICE: NA,NI, NU, NE,NO, HA, HI, FU,HE, HO, BA,BI,3U, BE, BO, PA, PI,PU,PE,PO STUDYSHEET #4 13 MA, MI,MU, ME, MO, YA, W, YO WORKSHEET#10 14 PRACTICE: MA,MI, MU,ME, MO, YA, W, YO WORKSHEET #11 15 MORE PRACTICE: MA, MI,MU,ME,MO, YA, W, YO WORKSHEET #12 16 ADDmONAL PRACTICE: MA,MI,MU, ME, MO, YA, W, YO STUDYSHEET #5 17
    [Show full text]
  • A Student Model of Katakana Reading Proficiency for a Japanese Language Intelligent Tutoring System
    A Student Model of Katakana Reading Proficiency for a Japanese Language Intelligent Tutoring System Anthony A. Maciejewski Yun-Sun Kang School of Electrical Engineering Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Abstract--Thls work describes the development of a kanji. Due to the limited number of kana, their relatively low student model that Is used In a Japanese language visual complexity, and their systematic arrangement they do Intelligent tutoring system to assess a pupil's not represent a significant barrier to the student of Japanese. proficiency at reading one of the distinct In fact, the relatively small effort required to learn katakana orthographies of Japanese, known as k a t a k a n a , yields significant returns to readers of technical Japanese due to While the effort required to memorize the relatively the high incidence of terms derived from English and few k a t a k a n a symbols and their associated transliterated into katakana. pronunciations Is not prohibitive, a major difficulty In reading katakana Is associated with the phonetic This work describes the development of a system that is modifications which occur when English words used to automatically acquire knowledge about how English which are transliterated Into katakana are made to words are transliterated into katakana and then to use that conform to the more restrictive rules of Japanese information in developing a model of a student's proficiency in phonology. The algorithm described here Is able to reading katakana. This model is used to guide the instruction automatically acquire a knowledge base of these of the student using an intelligent tutoring system developed phonological transformation rules, use them to previously [6,8].
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Script Generation Panel Document
    Chinese Script Generation Panel Document Proposal for the Generation Panel for the Chinese Script Label Generation Ruleset for the Root Zone 1. General Information Chinese script is the logograms used in the writing of Chinese and some other Asian languages. They are called Hanzi in Chinese, Kanji in Japanese and Hanja in Korean. Since the Hanzi unification in the Qin dynasty (221-207 B.C.), the most important change in the Chinese Hanzi occurred in the middle of the 20th century when more than two thousand Simplified characters were introduced as official forms in Mainland China. As a result, the Chinese language has two writing systems: Simplified Chinese (SC) and Traditional Chinese (TC). Both systems are expressed using different subsets under the Unicode definition of the same Han script. The two writing systems use SC and TC respectively while sharing a large common “unchanged” Hanzi subset that occupies around 60% in contemporary use. The common “unchanged” Hanzi subset enables a simplified Chinese user to understand texts written in traditional Chinese with little difficulty and vice versa. The Hanzi in SC and TC have the same meaning and the same pronunciation and are typical variants. The Japanese kanji were adopted for recording the Japanese language from the 5th century AD. Chinese words borrowed into Japanese could be written with Chinese characters, while Japanese words could be written using the character for a Chinese word of similar meaning. Finally, in Japanese, all three scripts (kanji, and the hiragana and katakana syllabaries) are used as main scripts. The Chinese script spread to Korea together with Buddhism from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Analysis of the Simplification of Chinese Characters in Japan and China
    CONTRASTING APPROACHES TO CHINESE CHARACTER REFORM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SIMPLIFICATION OF CHINESE CHARACTERS IN JAPAN AND CHINA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ASIAN STUDIES AUGUST 2012 By Kei Imafuku Thesis Committee: Alexander Vovin, Chairperson Robert Huey Dina Rudolph Yoshimi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express deep gratitude to Alexander Vovin, Robert Huey, and Dina R. Yoshimi for their Japanese and Chinese expertise and kind encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis. Their guidance, as well as the support of the Center for Japanese Studies, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and the East-West Center, has been invaluable. i ABSTRACT Due to the complexity and number of Chinese characters used in Chinese and Japanese, some characters were the target of simplification reforms. However, Japanese and Chinese simplifications frequently differed, resulting in the existence of multiple forms of the same character being used in different places. This study investigates the differences between the Japanese and Chinese simplifications and the effects of the simplification techniques implemented by each side. The more conservative Japanese simplifications were achieved by instating simpler historical character variants while the more radical Chinese simplifications were achieved primarily through the use of whole cursive script forms and phonetic simplification techniques. These techniques, however, have been criticized for their detrimental effects on character recognition, semantic and phonetic clarity, and consistency – issues less present with the Japanese approach. By comparing the Japanese and Chinese simplification techniques, this study seeks to determine the characteristics of more effective, less controversial Chinese character simplifications.
    [Show full text]
  • The Japanese Writing Systems, Script Reforms and the Eradication of the Kanji Writing System: Native Speakers’ Views Lovisa Österman
    The Japanese writing systems, script reforms and the eradication of the Kanji writing system: native speakers’ views Lovisa Österman Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature Bachelor’s Thesis Japanese B.A. Course (JAPK11 Spring term 2018) Supervisor: Shinichiro Ishihara Abstract This study aims to deduce what Japanese native speakers think of the Japanese writing systems, and in particular what native speakers’ opinions are concerning Kanji, the logographic writing system which consists of Chinese characters. The Japanese written language has something that most languages do not; namely a total of ​ ​ three writing systems. First, there is the Kana writing system, which consists of the two syllabaries: Hiragana and Katakana. The two syllabaries essentially figure the same way, but are used for different purposes. Secondly, there is the Rōmaji writing system, which is Japanese written using latin letters. And finally, there is the Kanji writing system. Learning this is often at first an exhausting task, because not only must one learn the two phonematic writing systems (Hiragana and Katakana), but to be able to properly read and write in Japanese, one should also learn how to read and write a great amount of logographic signs; namely the Kanji. For example, to be able to read and understand books or newspaper without using any aiding tools such as dictionaries, one would need to have learned the 2136 Jōyō Kanji (regular-use Chinese characters). With the twentieth century’s progress in technology, comparing with twenty years ago, in this day and age one could probably theoretically get by alright without knowing how to write Kanji by hand, seeing as we are writing less and less by hand and more by technological devices.
    [Show full text]
  • Na Kana Magiti Kei Na Lotu
    1 NA KANA MAGITI KEI NA LOTU (Vola Tabu : Maciu 22:1-10; Luke 14:12-24) Vola ko Rev. Dr. Ilaitia S. Tuwere. Sa inaki ni vunau oqo me taroga ka sauma talega na taro : A cava na Lotu? Ni da tekivu edaidai ena noda solevu vakalotu, sa na yaga meda taroga ka tovolea talega me sauma na taro oqori. Ia, ena levu na kena isau eda na solia, me vaka na: gumatuataki ni masu kei na vulici ni Vola Tabu, bula vakayalo, muria na ivakarau se lawa ni lotu ka vuqa tale. Na veika oqori era ka dina ka tu kina eso na isau ni taro : A Cava na Lotu. Na i Vola Tabu e sega ni tuvalaka vakavosa vei keda na ibalebale ni lotu. E vakavuqa me boroya vei keda na iyaloyalo me vakadewataka kina na veika eso e vinakata me tukuna. E sega talega ni solia e duabulu ga na iyaloyalo me baleta na lotu. E vuqa sara e solia vei keda. Oqori me vaka na Qele ni Sipi kei na i Vakatawa Vinaka; na Vuni Vaini kei na Tabana; na i Vakavuvuli kei iratou na nona Gonevuli se Tisaipeli, na Masima se Rarama kei Vuravura, na Ulu kei na Vo ni Yago taucoko, ka vuqa tale. Ena mataka edaidai, meda raica vata yani na iyaloyalo ni kana magiti. E rua na kena ivakamacala eda rogoca, mai na Kosipeli i Maciu kei na nei Luke. Na kana magiti se na solevu edua na ivakarau vakaitaukei. Eda soqoni vata kina vakaveiwekani ena noda veikidavaki kei na marau, kena veitalanoa, kena sere kei na meke, kena salusalu kei na kumuni iyau.
    [Show full text]