kanji
Sign in to saveKanji (; , hiragana: かんじ, Katakana: カンジ, , ) are logographic Chinese characters, historically adapted from Chinese writing scripts, used in the writing of Japanese. They comprised a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used today, along with the subsequently derived syllabic (phonographic) scripts of and . Most Kanji characters have two pronunciations: ''kun'yomi, based on the sounds of vernacular Japanese, where the Kanji is often phonetically transcribed with furigana; and on'yomi, based on the imitation of the original Middle Chinese sound
AI overview
Kanji are Chinese characters that were adapted for use in Japanese writing and remain a fundamental part of the Japanese writing system today, alongside two other syllabic scripts. Most kanji characters have two different pronunciations—one based on Japanese sounds and one based on the original Chinese pronunciation—which readers must learn to use them correctly.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Writing system.name
- Kanji
- Writing system.sample
- Kanji furigana.svg
- Writing system.type
- Logographic
- Writing system.caption
- Kanji written in kanji with
- Writing system.languages
- Old Japanese, , Japanese, Ryukyuan languages, Hachijō
- Writing system.time
- 5th century CE – present
- Writing system.fam1
- Oracle bone script
- Writing system.fam2
- Seal script
- Writing system.fam3
- Clerical script
- Writing system.fam4
- Regular script
- Writing system.sisters
- Hanja, zhuyin, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, chữ Hán, chữ Nôm, Khitan script, Jurchen script, Tangut script, Yi script
- Writing system.iso15924
Article
45 sectionsContents
- History
- Orthographic reform and lists of kanji
- {{translit|ja|Kyōiku}} kanji
- {{translit|ja|Jōyō}} kanji
- {{translit|ja|Jinmeiyō}} kanji
- {{translit|ja|Hyōgai}} kanji
- Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji
- Gaiji
- Total number of kanji
- Readings
- {{translit|ja|On'yomi}} (Sino-Japanese reading)
- {{translit|ja|Kun'yomi}} (native reading)
- {{translit|ja|Ateji}}
- Gairaigo
- Mixed readings {{anchor|jūbako|juubako|jubako|yutō|yutou|yuto}}
- Special readings
- Single character gairaigo
- {{translit|ja|Nanori}}
- When to use which reading
- Legalese
- Ambiguous readings
- Place names
- Pronunciation assistance
- Spelling words
- Dictionaries
- Local developments and divergences from Chinese
- {{translit|ja|Kokuji}} {{anchor|Wasei kanji}}
- {{translit|ja|Kokkun}}
- Types of kanji by category
- {{translit|ja|Shōkei moji}} ({{Nihongo2|象形文字}})
- {{translit|ja|Shiji moji}} ({{Nihongo2|指事文字}})
- {{translit|ja|Kaii moji}} ({{Nihongo2|会意文字}})
- {{translit|ja|Keisei moji}} ({{Nihongo2|形声文字}})
- {{translit|ja|Tenchū moji}} ({{Nihongo2|転注文字}})
- {{translit|ja|Kasha moji}} ({{Nihongo2|仮借文字}})
- Related symbols
- Collation
- Kanji education
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Citations
- Sources
- External links
- Glyph conversion
Kanji (; , hiragana: かんじ, Katakana: カンジ, , ) are logographic Chinese characters, historically adapted from Chinese writing scripts, used in the writing of Japanese. They comprised a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used today, along with the subsequently derived syllabic (phonographic) scripts of and . Most Kanji characters have two pronunciations: ''kun'yomi, based on the sounds of vernacular Japanese, where the Kanji is often phonetically transcribed with furigana; and on'yomi, based on the imitation of the original Middle Chinese sound when it was borrowed from written Chinese. Some Kanji characters were indigenously invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the Kanji'' characters, now known as , by a process similar to China's simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the general public. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common communication.