T2 - Japanese Script Research 1

1.26.2011 2032

TRANSMISSION START

This series of operations aims to look into how Japanese characters and scripts, otherwise known as Kana (かな) are used.

The three prominent かな in Japanese are Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (かたかな) , and Kanji (かんじ). It appears that in everyday instances, usually more than one set can be seen in use side by side.

ひらがな is the most basic of the かな set. It looks curvy, and if not, kind of cute. Its uses are somewhat multi-purpose, and can be widely seen in many texts. It is usually the first character set encountered by students of the Japanese language.

According to the Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary, ひらがな is used as the building blocks of the Japanese sentence. Grammatical particles and items (such as "wa" わ and "desu" です) are done in ひらがな.

かんじ on the other hand, are more complex-looking scripts that can be used to convey meanings that can vary among contexts and situations. They are derived or if not, directly taken from the Chinese character sets.

The Dictionary also mentions that かんじ is used for more formal, structured, or professional readings such as essays, reports, business advertisements, and even newspapers.

<-- Japanese newspaper extract Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞). Newspapers are the perfect example to see instances of having ALL 3 かな used in one publication. As seen here, characters are written both horizontally yokogaki よこがき and vertically tategaki たてがき.







かんじ is also used for proper nouns and names. The name "Yamada Yuki" can be written as 山田雪, but there can be also instances where a composite format is used, such as 山田ゆき. This would probably not appear in formal name lists, but occurs usually because either the writer or reader is not well aware of the proper かんじ to use.

かんじ is usually made for more knowledgeable and mature Japanese. Even children are not yet readily expected to read a lot of かんじ. It is said that once you are able to comfortably read newspapers in Japanese, you've grown up in the Japanese language. With that said, the Dictionary advises that beginners start simply with writing with ひらがな. Poorly written かんじ can produce disastrous effects!

かたかな on the other hand, are more solid, rough looking character scripts. "katakana" written in かたかな would be カタカナ. CIS/Heinemann's Ima! いま! textbook series indicate that one of the most prominent uses of かたかな is with the propagation of Japanese "loan words" from foreign languages, (mostly from English) and the depiction of foreign, non-Japanese proper nouns.

アメリカ would denote America while ハムバーガー is hamburger. Usage here indicates that neither words could originally and traditionally be found in the Japanese language before they were introduced by the non-Japanese.

Names of nations and countries (国 orくに in ひらがな) can also be depicted in カタカナ.
フランス would be France, イタリア would mean Italy (literally Italia from its native address), and フィリビン, literally Firripin would be my home country, The Philippines. However, for countries such as Japan itself, Nippon, the かんじ is used. That being 日本 or 日本国. The same is the case for its neighbors China (Chuugoku - 中国) and Korea (Kankoku - 韓国). Both are derived from their pronunciations in their native language. The かんじ is used in these contexts simply due to the fact that all three countries have language scripts that have roots in the Chinese language. This common factor is then put into consideration.

Names of non-Japanese persons are also depicted in カタカナ. For example, the common name "Sam" is サム in Japanese.

In relation to my point on the varied uses of Japanese かな, here are some examples I have collected.

These scanned images are the DVD leaves of the Japanese release of the 1984 British film The Killing Fields. キリング　フイールド is literally Kirringu Fuiirudo, the Japanese phonetical localization of the title.














Below is another scanned DVD leaf. This time, of the Japanese live-action film adaptation of the 1994 Japanese manga, あずみ "Azumi". Since あずみ is given name known in Japan, there is no need to adopt it into カタカナ.

Note that both DVDs were purchased here in Hong Kong.

As a final example, here is a photograph of a sign I found near the Pre-school center I work in.

This notice can be found on the doors of The Peninsula Hotel's shopping arcade compund "The Arcade". It is in the Tsim Shat Tsui, an area that is known to draw tourists not just due to its abundance of shopping centers, but also of its hotels, motels, and other accommodations. A good number of Japanese tourists can be found spending their time in Hong Kong Island and the Tsim Sha Tsui area. This sign was meant to both show an awareness to that and to cater to the Japanese that may walk around in Tsim Sha Tsui.



This warning notice is also yet another good example of two かな sets being used at the same time, being ひらがな and かんじ. Below it is the Chinese version, done in Traditional Chinese characters as is the norm in Hong Kong. かんじ may be a derivative of the Chinese character sets, but still, there are exceptions that show that not all of Chinese script is readily used in かんじ. So far, it has been observed to take from both Simplified and Traditional character sets, albeit it borrows more from Simplified Chinese.

ごめん！ごめん！It seems that this transmission has been rather long. However, it was imperative that explain everything known to me so far, in detail, so our fellow Japanese students may be able to join in the discussion. Until then, more findings will be put forward in the next transmissions.

To close, I shall follow the esteemed advice of the Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary - I shall attempt to write as much かんじ as I am already able to recognize. If not, most of my Japanese for the time being will be in ひらがな.

END TRANSMISSION