can not be overemphasized that the meeting with former Japanese Chinese civilization was not necessarily happy, at least for the Japanese language. Just as the method for manufacturing sweet wine such as sherry, mixing of two cultures with two very different levels completely stopped the fermentation. This meeting has made possible the evolution of Japanese, when he was not yet well developed.
For example, the Japanese language has one word for the lower limbs: ashi (あし). The word means or foot or leg. The vocabulary was not yet diversified when Japan saw China, whose civilization was a thousand times more advanced. The Chinese had two ideograms that signify respectively the foot (足) and leg (脚). The Japanese do not have their own writing system should be just bring these two characters with the same Japanese word ashi .
Now the Japanese are living a strange reversal. We almost forgot that there was only one word for the lower limbs initially, but believes rather than what are homonyms that are spelled differently, with the two ideograms, which prevents the romanization or removing kanji for "modernizing" the Japanese language. While admitting that there is no "if" in history, I imagine if the ancient Japanese had not met the Chinese civilization two thousand years ago, they could invent a Another word for leg ...
The example of this word is not an isolated exception. The Japanese distinguish very often called homonyms with different ideograms, which have nothing to do with the inner logic of their own language. I can say that the verb raises many problems for non-Japanese who want to learn this language. For example, the word Kaesu can be written at least two ways: 返す and 帰す. The first means "surrender, surrender", and the second "return (sb) (not in the sense of" fire "). And quite often, the distinction is more or less arbitrary. Both representing meanings of the verb kiku are "hearing (or request)" and "listen", and teachers tell students to write the first 聞く, and the second 聴く. But we must say that even the best writers do not always respect this rule at school, but not grammar.
Nouns do not pose fewer problems. The example of the word kawa on the envelope of the body is not difficult to understand: 皮 is skin and leather 革 (in principle!) The use of another word kawa means or river is more delicate.川 is a river relatively less important, and is wider than 河 川 (in principle!). But we use only the kanji 川 for administrative and geographic name. Both kawa (skin and river) are homonyms, but the division between the skin and leather for the first, is not a real disambiguation.
But what words like machi (town)? There are at least two kanji for this word: 町 and 街. We can say that the use of the second is more subjective than the first.街 is considered in a city the size of its activities, while 町 is probably more static ... We can write 町 all the time in general, but using 街 to emphasize the urban side. I must say that the distinction is arbitrary.
What bothers me most is people "educated" who want to impose the proper use of Chinese characters. They do not know, or want to ignore a persistent incomprehensible that the use of kanji for words of Japanese is not really essential for the Japanese language. (I do not speak here words of Chinese origin who are very numerous in our language. There is good reason to write with Chinese characters.)
For example, the Japanese language has one word for the lower limbs: ashi (あし). The word means or foot or leg. The vocabulary was not yet diversified when Japan saw China, whose civilization was a thousand times more advanced. The Chinese had two ideograms that signify respectively the foot (足) and leg (脚). The Japanese do not have their own writing system should be just bring these two characters with the same Japanese word ashi .
Now the Japanese are living a strange reversal. We almost forgot that there was only one word for the lower limbs initially, but believes rather than what are homonyms that are spelled differently, with the two ideograms, which prevents the romanization or removing kanji for "modernizing" the Japanese language. While admitting that there is no "if" in history, I imagine if the ancient Japanese had not met the Chinese civilization two thousand years ago, they could invent a Another word for leg ...
The example of this word is not an isolated exception. The Japanese distinguish very often called homonyms with different ideograms, which have nothing to do with the inner logic of their own language. I can say that the verb raises many problems for non-Japanese who want to learn this language. For example, the word Kaesu can be written at least two ways: 返す and 帰す. The first means "surrender, surrender", and the second "return (sb) (not in the sense of" fire "). And quite often, the distinction is more or less arbitrary. Both representing meanings of the verb kiku are "hearing (or request)" and "listen", and teachers tell students to write the first 聞く, and the second 聴く. But we must say that even the best writers do not always respect this rule at school, but not grammar.
Nouns do not pose fewer problems. The example of the word kawa on the envelope of the body is not difficult to understand: 皮 is skin and leather 革 (in principle!) The use of another word kawa means or river is more delicate.川 is a river relatively less important, and is wider than 河 川 (in principle!). But we use only the kanji 川 for administrative and geographic name. Both kawa (skin and river) are homonyms, but the division between the skin and leather for the first, is not a real disambiguation.
But what words like machi (town)? There are at least two kanji for this word: 町 and 街. We can say that the use of the second is more subjective than the first.街 is considered in a city the size of its activities, while 町 is probably more static ... We can write 町 all the time in general, but using 街 to emphasize the urban side. I must say that the distinction is arbitrary.
What bothers me most is people "educated" who want to impose the proper use of Chinese characters. They do not know, or want to ignore a persistent incomprehensible that the use of kanji for words of Japanese is not really essential for the Japanese language. (I do not speak here words of Chinese origin who are very numerous in our language. There is good reason to write with Chinese characters.)
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