Kanji

From MIWiki

Kanji (along with Hiragana and Katakana) is one of the three primary systems for writing Japanese (four, if one includes romanji). Kanji characters are generally much more complicated than Hiragana or Katakana. Each Kanji is a logogram and as such represents a word or concept, and not an individual sound like hiragana, katakana and romanji.

Details

Kanji are Chinese logograms used in Japanese. Unlike hiragana, katakana and romanji, each kanji character represents a complete word, unit of language or concept. Kanji is based on imported Chinese characters and some kanji mean the same things in both Chinese and Japanese, though it is important to note that while the logograms are common, the grammar and spoken languages are quite different. Additionally, there are now major differences between Chinese hanzi and kanji due to creation of new kanji, meaning changes and a move following WWII to simplify Kanji.

One thing that many people find confusing about kanji is that each can have multiple meanings or readings. Much of this has to do with when the kanji were imported and how the Japanese adopted them. Generally speaking, there are two main ways to read most Kanji: "on" and "kun". "On" readings are based on the Chinese word (or morpheme) when the Kanji was brought in, and "kun" is the Japanese word (or morpheme) assigned to the kanji. To make it more complicated, compound words might combine readings. So for example in 合気道, which is "aikido", the first character uses the kun reading, while the other two use the on reading.

Number of Kanji

There are estimated to be between 50,000 and 80,000 different kanji. Most of those are not in widespread use. It is suggested that knowing about 3000 kanji would make one fairly kanji literate. The Japanese government has established guidelines for which kanji are to be learned at what age for schoolchildren.