The History of Kanji

The History of Kanji

The Japanese language is made up of four main scriptures, kanji,

hiragana, katakana and romaji. Kanji was imported over the centuries

from China. The pictograms are typically much more complex than kana,

hiragana and katakana, and, furthermore, have different readings and

meanings depending on how they are combined with other kanji.

They represent words or ideas rather than syllables, although kana

could be used to spell out the pronunciation. It is not uncommon to

see a kanji with it’s reading spelt out in very small kana, written

just above it. Kana used in this way, to indicate how to pronounce a

kanji, are known as ‘furigana’.

The same kanji can be read in different ways. For example, the kanji,

‘sei’, can be read as ‘sei’ when in ‘sensei’, teacher, or as ‘u’ when

in ‘umareta’, I was born, or ‘nama’ in ‘nama biiru’, draught beer.

Kanji can be words alone or, if combined with other kanji, compounds.

They can be modified and manipulated to give many different readings

and meanings but have the original stem remaining. They have evolved,

over a long period of time, from mere cracks in tortoise shells into

the complex symbols they are today. To investigate this it is helpful

to explore the history of kanji and it’s origins, it’s formation, and

it’s different readings.

Kanji are characters that were as part of the writing system used

among the Asian countries, especially China. It is not certain when

and where kanji first appeared, however, the oldest pattern-like

characters, resembling some sort of symbols, were carved on fragments

of earthenware and have been excavated from the ruins of ancient

Ch...

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...n impact that is expected to

continue. Another influence of current note is the generation gap that

exists relative to Japanese language use, today’s younger generation

is tending to favour the utilisation of more neutral and informal

speech, ignoring the importance of the role of honorific and

gender-specific speech regarded important in traditional Japanese.

Other developments, such as the progression of new slang terms and

youth-specific grammar usage, are also being observed. This is

inevitable and unstoppable, but, who is to say that this is a problem?

It does not have to become negative or something to frown upon as it

is happening in all languages and cultures across the world.

Kanji is a complex and intricate scripture, adapted from Chinese

origins, that meets the demand, of Japanese people, to communicate.