Now that we have seen the use of hiragana and katakana, it is high time to move on to kanji. Let’s start without further delay with the first course : the two kanji readings. But to better understand this story of two kanji readings, let me tell you the story of the origin of kanji.
Originally, the Japanese language was only a spoken language and had no written medium. The Japanese had simple words to describe elements of everyday life.
For example :
– The mountain translates as « Yama »
– The bird translates as « Tori »
– The fire translates as « Hi »
– The water translates as « Mizu »
– The medicine translates as « Kusuri »
– The sheep translates as « Hitsuji »
– The fox translates as « Kitsune »
– The island translates as « Shima »
– White translates as « Shiro »
– Black translates as « Kuro »
– Green translates as « Midori »
– The tea translates as « Cha »(imagine a « t » at the beginning of the word)
– The belt translates as « Obi »
– The hair translates as « Ke »
– The god / deity translates as « Kami »
– The story / conversation translates as « Hanashi »
– The tree translates as « Ki »
– The cherry tree translates as « Sakura »
– The thread translates as « Ito »
– Etc...
At that time, the Chinese Empire already had its own writing system based on ideograms for its language, a writing system that the Japanese took over in the 4th century AD to adapt it to their own language.
As the name of this writing system suggests, ideograms are symbols that represent pictures, small drawings, ideas. It can be something physical like a mountain, a house, a tree, a flower, colors... Or a more abstract concept like courage, cowardice, fear, happiness…
The Japanese, already having a spoken language, applied their pronunciations to the Chinese ideograms.
So :
– « Mountain » was written 山 and therefore pronounced « Yama »
– « Bird » was written 鳥 and therefore pronounced « Tori »
– « Fire » was written 火 and therefore pronounced « Hi »
– « Water » was written 水 and therefore pronounced « Mizu »
– « Medicine » was written 薬 and therefore pronounced « Kusuri »
– « Sheep » was written 羊 and therefore pronounced « Hitsuji »
– « Fox » was written 狐 and therefore pronounced « Kitsune »
– « Island » was written 島 and therefore pronounced « Shima »
– « White » was written 白 and therefore pronounced « Shiro »
– « Black » was written 黒 and therefore pronounced « Kuro »
– « Green » was written 緑 and therefore pronounced « Midori »
– « Tea » was written 茶 and therefore pronounced « Cha »
– « Belt » was written 帯 and therefore pronounced « Obi »
– « Hair » was written 毛 and therefore pronounced « Ke »
– « God, deity » was written 神 and therefore pronounced « Kami »
– « Story, conversation » was written 話 and therefore pronounced « Hanashi »
– « Tree » was written 木 and therefore pronounced « Ki »
– « Cherry tree » was written 桜 and therefore pronounced « Sakura »
– « Thread » was written 糸 and therefore pronounced « Ito »
– Etc...
To write the Japanese language phonetically, the Japanese invented hiragana which are simplifications of kanji.
The Japanese therefore invented the hiragana to write not with ideograms but phonetically, by syllable, the language which was already theirs.
So :
– « Mountain » was written in kanji 山 and in hiragana « やま »
– « Bird » was written in kanji 鳥 and in hiragana « とり »
– « Fire » was written in kanji 火 and in hiragana « ひ »
– « Water » was written in kanji 水 and in hiragana « みず »
– « Medicine » was written in kanji 薬 and in hiragana « くすり »
– « Sheep » was written in kanji 羊 and in hiragana « ひつじ »
– « Fox » was written in kanji 狐 and in hiragana « きつね »
– « Island » was written in kanji 島 and in hiragana « しま »
– « White » was written in kanji 白 and in hiragana « しろ »
– « Black » was written in kanji 黒 and in hiragana « くろ »
– « Green » was written in kanji 緑 and in hiragana « みどり »
– « Tea » was written in kanji 茶 and in hiragana « ちゃ »
– « Belt » was written in kanji 帯 and in hiragana « おび »
– « Hair » was written in kanji 毛 and in hiragana « け »
– « God, deity » was written in kanji 神 and in hiragana « かみ »
– « Story, conversation » was written in kanji 話 and in hiragana « はなし »
– « Tree » was written in kanji 木 and in hiragana « き »
– « Cherry tree » was written in kanji 桜 and in hiragana « さくら »
– « Thread » was written in kanji 糸 and in hiragana « いと »
– Etc...
But all these ideograms, they already had a pronunciation of Chinese origin. Well, the Japanese also took over the Chinese pronunciation of the ideograms. And to transcribe the Chinese, foreign and unusual sounds for the Japanese, the latter invented the katakana.
The first foreign language, therefore, for which katakana was invented, is not English or French or Spanish or Portuguese... it is Chinese.
So, we end up with two different readings for each kanji, the first written in hiragana is the purely Japanese reading, the second that I will write below in the list is the Sino-Japanese reading ("sino" for Chinese).
The Sino-Japanese pronunciation is the pronunciation from the Chinese language and that the Japanese have adapted to their pronunciation.
Note that we write purely Japanese readings in hiragana and Sino-Japanese readings in katakana.
For your general knowledge, know that purely Japanese readings are called « kon yomi » and Sino-Japanese readings are called « on yomi ». However, I will never use these terms in my courses. I will always speak of purely Japanese readings and Sino-Japanese readings for simplicity. You can learn these terms if you like.
We therefore resume our list of words to add the pronunciation from Chinese :
« Mountain »,
– in kanji 山,
– in purely Japanese やま,
– in Sino-Japanese サン
« Bird »,
– in kanji 鳥,
– in purely Japanese とり,
– in Sino-Japanese チョウ
« Fire »,
– in kanji 火,
– in purely Japanese ひ,
– in Sino-Japanese カ
« Water »,
– in kanji 水,
– in purely Japanese みず,
– in Sino-Japanese スイ
« Medicine »,
– in kanji 薬,
– in purely Japanese くすり,
– in Sino-Japanese ヤク
« Sheep »,
– in kanji 羊,
– in purely Japanese ひつじ,
– in Sino-Japanese ヨウ
« Fox »,
– in kanji 狐,
– in purely Japanese きつね,
– in Sino-Japanese コ
« Island »,
– in kanji 島,
– in purely Japanese しま,
– in Sino-Japanese トウ
« White »,
– in kanji 白,
– in purely Japanese しろ,
– in Sino-Japanese ハク
« Black »,
– in kanji 黒,
– in purely Japanese くろ,
– in Sino-Japanese コク
« Green »,
– in kanji 緑,
– in purely Japanese みどり,
– in Sino-Japanese リョク
« Tea »,
– in kanji 茶,
– in Sino-Japanese チャ et サ
« Belt »,
– in kanji 帯,
– in purely Japanese おび,
– in Sino-Japanese タイ
« Hair »,
– in kanji 毛,
– in purely Japanese け,
– in Sino-Japanese モウ
« God, deity »,
– in kanji 神,
– in purely Japanese かみ,
– in Sino-Japanese シン
« Story, conversation »,
– in kanji 話,
– in purely Japanese はなし,
– in Sino-Japanese ワ et カイ
« Tree »,
– in kanji 木,
– in purely Japanese き,
– in Sino-Japanese ボク et モク
« Cherry tree »,
– in kanji 桜,
– in purely Japanese さくら,
– in Sino-Japanese オウ
« Thread »,
– in kanji 糸,
– in purely Japanese いと,
– in Sino-Japanese シ
So, let’s recap :
– Kanji are ideograms of Chinese origin.
– They have a purely Japanese reading written in hiragana.
– They have a Sino-Japanese reading written in katakana.
– By combining these kanji with each other, we can create new words !
Note : you will have noticed that some kanji have more than one Sino-Japanese pronunciation. It is quite possible and we will see that in more detail later.
For example :
With the kanji of « white » and the kanji of « bird », we can create the word « swan ».
白 . しろ . ハク +
鳥 . とり . チョウ -
白鳥
With the kanji of « black » and the kanji of « belt », we can create the word « black belt ».
黒 . くろ . コク +
帯 . おび . タイ -
黒帯
With the kanji of « sheep » and the kanji of « hair », we can create the word « wool ».
羊 . ひつじ . ヨウ +
毛 . け . モウ -
羊毛
With the kanji of « fire » and the kanji of « mountain », we can create the word « volcano ».
火 . ひ . カ +
山 . やま . サン -
火山
With the kanji of « fox » and the kanji of « fire », we can create the word « fiery wisp / fox fire ».
狐 . きつね . コ +
火 . ひ . カ -
狐火
(The word « fiery wisp / fox fire » refers to a youkai of Japanese folklore. Legend tells that these lights come from the fox sigh, hence their name. Nowadays, the phenomenon of fox fire or fiery wisp in the West is mainly explained by the natural combustion of oil, ball lightning or a large refraction of light which often occurs in alluvial cones.)
With the kanji of « green » and the kanji of « tea », we can create the word « green tea ».
緑 . みどり . リョク +
茶 . やま . チャ, サ -
緑茶
With the kanji of « water » and the kanji of « bird », we can create the word « water bird, palmiped ».
水 . みず . スイ +
鳥 . とり . チョウ -
水鳥
With the kanji of « water » and the kanji of « medicine », we can create the word « potion ; liquid medicine ».
水 . みず . スイ +
薬 . くすり . ヤク -
水薬
With the kanji of « fire » and the kanji of « medicine », we can create the word « gunpowder ».
火 . ひ . カ +
薬 . くすり . ヤク -
水薬
With the kanji of « thread » and the kanji of « cherry tree », we can create the word « weeping cherry ».
糸 . いと . オウ +
桜 . さくら . シ -
糸桜
With the kanji of « white » and the kanji of « thread », we can create the word « white thread ».
白 . しろ . ハク +
糸 . いと . オウ -
白糸
With the kanji of « god, deity » and the kanji of « tree », we can create the word « divine tree ».
神 . かみ . シン +
木 . き . ボク, モク -
神木
(The word « divine tree » refers to the trees surrounded by a sacred rope which can sometimes reach an absolutely gigantic size. The tree in question is considered to be a place in which a « kami », a deity resides. The term 神木 also refers to wooden logs dedicated to the construction of temples.)
With the kanji of « god, deity » and the kanji of « story, conversation », we can create the word « mythology, myth ».
神 . かみ . シン +
話 . はなし . ワ, カイ -
神話
With the kanji of « hair » and the kanji of « thread », we can create the word « wool thread ».
毛 . け . モウ +
糸 . いと . オウ, モク -
毛糸
(The word « wool » is written 羊毛 and the word « wool thread » is written 毛糸. The first word implies the « sheep wool » since we have the presence of the kanji of the « sheep » although it can be used to speak of wool in general.)
With the kanji of « mountain » and the kanji of « cherry tree », we can create the word « mountain cherry ».
山 . やま . サン +
桜 . さくら . シ -
山桜
With the kanji of « mountain » and the kanji of « bird », we can create the word « scintillating pheasant ».
山 . やま . サン +
鳥 . とり . チョウ -
山鳥
Let’s combine three kanji this time ! With the kanji of « fire », the kanji of « mountain » and the kanji of « island », we can create the word « volcanic island ».
火 . ひ . カ +
山 . やま . サン +
島 . しま . トウ -
火山島
With the kanji of « fire », the kanji of « mountain » and the kanji of « belt », we can create the word « volcanic chain / chain of volcanoes ».
火 . ひ . カ +
山 . やま . サン +
帯 . おび . タイ -
火山帯
For the record, do you remember what usually happens when we katakanize a word ? Its pronunciation can be more or less altered. So, I also remind you that the Japanese language strives to stay as close as possible to the original pronunciation of the foreign words it katakanise. For this, the Japanese have created new combinations of kana to adapt phonetics that only exist in foreign languages. But we have also seen that these new combinations are very recent, around sixty years old. But then how did the Japanese do it, centuries ago, when they took over the Chinese ideograms and the Chinese pronunciations of these ideograms ?
If the Japanese language is very simple in terms of its syllables, the Chinese language, on the contrary, is immensely rich in its syllables and intonations. As an example, the same syllable in Chinese language can sometimes have up to four different pronunciations. It’s considerable ! But the Japanese preferred to keep it simple. So, instead of transcribing as faithfully as possible all the phonetic richness of Chinese – especially that the Japanese already had a spoken language –, they, by adapting Chinese phonetics to their language, considerably altered the pronunciation of quantity of words.
However, the Japanese language therefore contains many homophones and for this reason the Japanese have kept the kanji to facilitate the differentiation between words pronounced similarly, at least in writing. Orally, it is mainly the context of the sentence that will determine what the speaker is talking about.
When Japan opened up to the West and, much later, when the Internet, social networks, globalization… emerged with all the foreign words, especially English which accompanied all of this, the Japanese were forced to use words which were totally foreign to them and which they were absolutely not used to pronounce. Even their writing, before the appearance of the new combinations of kana, did not allow to faithfully transcribe a good number of foreign words.
What about kanji ? So they each have a Sino-Japanese pronunciation and we saw in this course, that in Japanese, we form new words by combining kanji. But then, how do we know if we should pronounce such a new word in purely Japanese reading ? Or in Sino-Japanese reading ? When it’s not just a mixture of both ?!
This is what awaits you in the next course.
Wait! You are not going to leave so quickly; you still have exercises to do. With that, they’re available below as usual. The exercise is extremely simple, I give you a list of kanji with their purely and Sino-Japanese pronunciations, and you circle in green the purely Japanese pronunciations, you circle in purple the Sino-Japanese pronunciations.
It is an ultra-simple exercise but it is important that you acquire the reflex to recognize at first glance which are the purely Japanese pronunciations – these are those written in hiragana –, which are the Sino-Japanese pronunciations – these are those written in katakana –.
All the kanji given to you in the exercise are very common kanji so learn them 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