We saw in the previous course that there are two different ways of reading kanji : purely Japanese reading and Sino-Japanese reading.
We also asked ourselves the following questions, namely : how do we know if we should pronounce a new word in purely Japanese reading ? Or in Sino-Japanese reading ? When it’s not just a mixture of both ?!
In order to understand all this mystery, we will immediately see all this in this course on the kanji usage rules.
And for this course, we are going to reuse most of the kanji we saw in the previous course, so I hope you have reviewed it well.
白 .
しろ .
ハク → White
鳥 .
とり .
チョウ → Bird (lengthen the kana)
羊 .
ひつじ .
ヨウ → Sheep (lengthen the kana)
毛 .
け .
モウ → Hair (lengthen the kana)
火 .
ひ .
カ → Fire
山 .
やま .
サン → Mountain
薬 .
くすり .
ヤク → Medicine
神 .
かみ .
シン → God, deity
木 .
き .
ボク, モク → Tree
緑 .
みどり .
リョク → Green
茶 .
チャ, サ → Tea
Note that for Sino-Japanese pronunciations of the following kanji 鳥 . とり . チョウ, 羊 . ひつじ . ヨウ and 毛 . け . モウ, we have to lengthen the kana. For now, don’t ask yourself questions, we will see in more detail the why in a next course on advanced kanji analysis. For now, we’re stopping there but don’t worry, it’ll be explained to you when the time comes.
We are now going to create new words in Japanese. We saw in the previous course the principle to follow, in outline, to create words in Japanese from kanji. You just have to combine them. Remember that kanji are ideograms. A single kanji translates an idea, and several kanji combined together translate a new idea.
For example, if I mean « wool ». What is wool ? This is the name we give to sheep’s hair – well, there are other animals from which we can produce wool like the llama, for example, but let’s stay from the point of view of a Japanese – so, we’ll first use the kanji of « sheep ».
羊 .
ひつじ .
ヨウ → Sheep
Knowing that wool is the name we give to sheep’s hair, to be able to say « wool », I have to combine the kanji of 羊 with that of « hair ».
毛 .
け .
モウ → Hair
That gives us :
羊毛 .
ヨウモウ → Wool
You will have noticed that we have combined the Sino-Japanese pronunciations of the kanji with each other.
Why couldn’t we have combined purely Japanese pronunciations ひつじ and け instead ? This would have given us « sheep’s hair » and not « wool ». I hope you understand the principle. Using the Sino-Japanese readings of these two kanji, we show that we have combined them well to create a new word.
Let’s take another example.
If we mean « swan », we will first use the kanji of « white » which we will combine with the kanji of « bird ».
白 .
しろ .
ハク → White
鳥 .
とり .
チョウ → Bird
That gives us :
白鳥 .
ハクチョウ → Swan
Again, we combined the Sino-Japanese pronunciations of the kanji with each other.
Why couldn’t we have combined purely Japanese pronunciations しろ and とり instead ? This would have given us « white bird ». So not very logical. The swan is indeed a white bird but we want to say very exactly the word « swan » and not the word « white bird ». Again, it is by combining the Sino-Japanese readings of these two kanji that we show that we have combined them well to create a new word.
As for qualifying adjectives like colors and how to use qualifying adjectives in Japanese, we won’t see that until season four, so frankly, you don’t have to worry about that for the moment.
Let’s take a third example.
If we mean « mythology, myth », we will first use the kanji of « god, deity » which we will combine with the kanji of « story, conversation ».
神 .
かみ .
シン → God, deity
話 .
はなし .
ワ, カイ → Story, conversation
That gives us :
神話 .
シンワ → Mythology, myth
Again, we combined the Sino-Japanese pronunciations of the kanji with each other.
Why couldn’t we have combined purely Japanese pronunciations かみ and はなし instead ? We could tell ourselves that this time the meaning would have been the same : « the story of the gods ». Yep but no, the word was designed to be pronounced シンワ. So, memorize it that way.
Let’s take a fourth example.
If we mean « divine tree », we will first use the kanji of « god, deity » which we will combine with the kanji of « tree ».
神 .
かみ .
シン → God, deity
木 .
き .
ボク, モク → Tree
That gives us :
神木 . シンボク → Divine tree
As in the previous example, the word was designed to be pronounced シンボク. So, keep it that way.
Come on, a very last one.
For example, if I mean « gunpowder », we will first use the kanji of « fire » which we will combine with the kanji of « medicine ».
火 .
ひ . カ → Fire
薬 .
くすり . ヤク → Medicine
That gives us :
火薬 .
カヤク → Gunpowder
The way this word was constructed may seem strange, however, this is how it was created, so learn it as it is.
And here we are on our main rule, the most important rule of the kanji, the one that will govern all the use of kanji (or in any case, 99% of the cases). I put it to you below, remember it well.
Main rule : when you use a kanji alone to create a word, you read it in its purely Japanese reading. When two or more kanji are combined to create a word, they are each read in their Sino-Japanese reading.
So, you can see that thanks to the Sino-Japanese pronunciations, the Japanese have all created a range of new words, a little more complex than all the basic vocabulary they had before the arrival of the kanji and Sino-Japanese pronunciations, and thus considerably expanded their language.
To this main rule will be juxtaposed two small annex rules just as important which will add some small touches of variations.
In a Sino-Japanese word, it will sometimes happen that the first kana of the second kanji takes an accent, and this for reasons of pronunciation. It won’t happen every time but it will happen from time to time. For now, let’s start with an example.
Let’s take the kanji of « fire » and the kanji of « mountain » :
火 .
ひ .
カ → Fire
山 .
やま .
サン → Mountain
To create the word « volcano », we are going to combine the Sino-Japanese pronunciations of these two kanji.
火山 .
カサン → Volcano
But the word « volcano » is not pronounced « カサン ». This pronunciation is somewhat difficult for Japanese, so we are going to add an accent, a dakuten, as we have already seen in a previous course.
So we will have the word :
火山 .
カザン → Volcano
So, the word 火山 . カザン with a « ザ » is much easier to pronounce for Japanese people. Whatever happens, the word « volcano » will always be pronounced « カザン ». When the first annex rule applies to a word, it remains immutable. If you pronounce the same word « カサン », the Japanese will not understand the word « volcano ».
There is no specific method of knowing when we will use a dakuten and when we will not use it, except for pronunciation reasons. You will have noticed that for the words « wool » ヨウモウ and « swan » ハクチョウ, we didn’t use dakuten... simply because there is none and the Japanese have no trouble pronouncing it ヨウモウ (wool) and ハクチョウ (swan).
In fact, it’s also a little bit of a feeling and, at the same time, of memorization. You must memorize the words that take a dakuten, keeping in mind that, if there is a dakuten, it is to facilitate pronunciation. So, put yourself in the place of Japanese and learn to feel whether a Sino-Japanese word seems easy to pronounce or not. If there is a dakuten, it is always to facilitate pronunciation.
Now that all these explanations have been given, let’s see another example by taking the kanji of « green » and the kanji of « tea » :
緑 .
みどり .
リョク → Green
茶 .
チャ, サ → Tea
To create the word « green tea », we are going to combine the Sino-Japanese pronunciations of these two kanji.
緑茶 .
リョクチャ → Green tea
No dakuten here, the word is easy to pronounce.
In a Sino-Japanese word, it will sometimes happen that the second kana of the first kanji becomes a pause, and this for reasons of pronunciation. To illustrate this rule, we will take as an example this word :
立食 → Buffet
The Sino-Japanese readings are リツ and ショク, which should give us リツショク. But this pronunciation is quite complex for Japanese people. So we’re going to put a pause between リツ and ショク, which gives us :
立食.
リツショク → Buffet
Let’s take another example with a word we’ve already seen in the break lesson (again !) :
楽器 → Music instrument
The Sino-Japanese readings are ガク and キ, which should give us ガクキ. But, again, this pronunciation is not very natural for Japanese people. So we’re going to put a pause between ガク and キ, which gives us :
立食 .
ガッキ → Music instrument
Let’s take a third example :
発火 → Beginning of fire, inflammation
The Sino-Japanese readings are ハツ and カ, which should give us ハツカ. But, again, this pronunciation is not very natural for Japanese people. So we’re going to put a pause between ハツ and カ, which gives us :
発火 .
ハッカ → Beginning of fire, inflammation
Let’s take a fourth example :
発車 → Train departure
The Sino-Japanese readings are ハツ and シャ, which should give us ハツシャ. But, again, this pronunciation is not very natural for Japanese people. So we’re going to put a pause between ハツ and シャ, which gives us :
発車 .
ハッシャ → Train departure
Very often, the Sino-Japanese readings of a kanji are generally composed of one or two kana, sometimes three, especially if we have a lengthened combination.
It should be understood that, when the Chinese pronunciations were katakanized, the Japanese were left with generally two syllables, rarely three, and sometimes syllables ending with a ん.
This second annex rule does not happen every time. It is by dint of learning vocabulary and observing the construction of Sino-Japanese words that you will come to understand that, if such Sino-Japanese words contain a pause then it means that the second additional rule applies...
The important thing is that you understand how it all works.
Obviously, it can happen that these two rules sometimes apply at the same time. Immediately an example :
発表 → Ad, advertisement, announcement
The Sino-Japanese readings are ハツ and ビョウ, which should give us ハツビョウ. But, again (yes! I repeat myself!), this pronunciation is not very natural for Japanese people. So, we’re going to put a pause between ハツ and ビョウ. On top of that, we will transform the ビョウ by adding a handakuten to it on the first kana. It then becomes ピョウ.
発表 .
ハッピョウ → Annonce
Note that, very often, the second kana of the second kanji which becomes a pause is a ツ. This will very often be the case. That’s why the pause, basically, we write it with a little ッ. We will see in more detail why the pause is written with a small ッ in a next course. Note for now that the pause with a little ッ was created when the Japanese started to combine kanjis to create new words because it is most often the kana ツ which turns into a pause.
At this point in your learning of the Japanese language :
– You have studied the four rules of katakanization.
– You have learned to transcribe foreign proper names in Japanese.
– You have learned the new combinations of katakana which facilitate the transcription of foreign words in Japanese.
– You have studied all the rules for using kanji, you now know that each kanji has a purely Japanese reading and a Sino-Japanese reading.
– You know that we use the first pronunciation when we use a kanji alone and the second pronunciation when we combine kanji to create more complex words.
– You know all the rules around accents, pauses and lengthenings.
– You know by heart (I hope !) all your hiragana and your katakana, both orally and written.
We will finally be able to continue on the creation of our first words in kanji. We’ve already seen a few in this and previous courses, so feel free to read them again before moving on to the next course. It is very important to know vocabulary by heart.
This course is now over, thank you for reading. Continue to be diligent in your work and you will make progress, I guarantee it.
I wish you a good day / a good evening.
Introduction