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amusing kanji/japanese: deciphering japanese: three 'alphabets' (part 1 of 3)
as usual， hover for readings to the japanese。 click to see the other articles in the amusing kanji/japanese series。


this is article is the first of a three part series。 the series is a response to three awkward questions asked of me after the last few entries。 the answers are 'easy'， but explaining them is hard work。 thus the procrastination and length。

first， back in the "firefly snow" article， i created a sentence using five different words that are all said in a way that sounds like "keisetsu"。 i said i'd check that sentence with a japanese teacher when i got back to work and that is what i have done。 my sentence was， as expected， rather garbled。 here is the sentence done properly：

経説の理解を蛍雪の功で乗り越えた彼は、心には勁雪に匹敵する勁節があり、他人には磬折を心がけます。

[keisetsu no rikai o keisetsu no kou de norikoeta kare wa， kokoro ni wa keisetsu ni hitteki suru keisetsu ga ari， tanin ni wa keisetsu o kokorogakemasu。]

i've cut the hovering readings at the punctuation marks， so that there are three different hover sections on that sentence。 i will use the sentence as an example for this three part series。 the sentence means something like "having overcome the understanding of confucian doctrine， by dint of gruelling study， he， having principles in his heart that can be compared to snow that won't melt， makes sincere efforts to show proper respect to others in his bowing"。

right， onto those questions (in somewhat exaggerated form)：

1. when you put kanji in your articles， sometimes there are squiggles that don't look like all the other squiggles。 are they something else？ if so， what are they？
   
2. you said something about the order in which you write the strokes in a kanji being important and that someone trained can tell if you write it incorrectly。 how do you know the order？ aren't these squiggles just random jumbles of lines？
   
3. you said something about needing to be able to read/write two thousand of these squiggles just for basic literacy。 isn't that a bit stupid？ it sounds like a big waste of time to me。

first question first： what are those other squiggles？。。 have a look at the beginning of that example sentence： "経説の理解を蛍雪の功で乗り越えた彼は、"。

the first and second characters are pretty complicated， the third is much simpler。 similarly for the next two groups of three characters。 the complicated ones are kanji， the less complicated ones are the other "squiggles" referred to in the question。 thus， that section goes kanji-kanji-squiggle-kanji-kanji-squiggle-kanji-kanji-squiggle-kanji-squiggle-kanji-squiggle-kanji-squiggle-squiggle-kanji-squiggle-comma。 so what are those squiggles？

japanese has three "alphabets"。 technically it has two syllabaries and the kanji， which are a mixture of symbols (representations of abstract ideas) and pictograms (representations of physical objects)。 when the japanese originally stole their writing system from the chinese， starting in the third or fourth century ad， there were only kanji。

漢字 literally means "characters from han china"： the modern square form of kanji became established somewhere in the middle of the han reign (~200ad)。

there were some fifty thousand kanji at that time。 in modern japanese， only about two thousand of those are generally used， although there a couple of thousand more the knowledge of which would make your life easier when reading literature or names。 that's still an order of magnitude less than the number available in chinese： i'm told that literacy in modern chinese requires twenty to thirty thousand kanji。

in chinese， the kanji are used for everything， including all grammar functions。 however， japanese is a highly inflected language， in some ways much like latin， and chinese is not。 this basically means that in japanese you make different forms of a verb by keeping a fixed stem and changing what you put on the end。

example： in english you have things like： "i run"， "i am running"， "i was running"， "i ran"， "i have run"， "i will run"， etc。 in japanese， the word for "run" is 走る - that is the basic "i run"。 to form "i ran"， you change that final る to a った： 走った。 to form "i am running"， you change the る to っている： 走っている。 the kanji stem (走) does not change。

english uses a mixture of inflection， adding words and changing words all mixed together in order express this sort of grammar function。 japanese only does the inflection。 chinese apparently works in another way altogether。

the upshot of this is that the japanese needed to find some way of writing down these inflections， and the kanji they nicked from the chinese weren't up to the job， because inflection wasn't something relevant to chinese。

in english， we have some basic sounds (phonemes) which we combine to make syllables and words。 these are represented by our alphabet¹。 however， in japanese， the basic unit is not the phoneme， but the syllable。 for example， in japanese you can not say a "k" sound or a "b" sound on it's own， but only in a syllable like "ka" or "bo"。

japanese is made up of combinations of those syllables， rather than from combinations of basic phonemes as in english。 this means that the numbers of sounds possible in japanese is considerably more limited than in english。 this has a tendency to make japanese pronunciation relatively easy for english speakers， although there are always other complicating factors！

a syllabary is simply an 'alphabet' that represents all the possible syllables in a language。 syllabaries are technically speaking not 'alphabets' at all， but from now on i will just refer to them that way。 the same goes for kanji： it is not technically an 'alphabet'， but i will refer to it as such from now on。

so as i said way up there， japanese has three alphabets： the huge kanji alphabet and two smallish syllabary alphabets。 those smaller alphabets are called 平仮名 and 片仮名。 depending on how you count， they have somewhere between fifty and a hundred characters each： you can make extra syllables by adding diacritics² and by making diphthongs³。 here is a table showing the whole hiragana alphabet， including some of those 'extra' syllables。

both of these alphabets were created at the beginning of the 平安 period⁴。 平仮名 was created by stylising and simplifying various kanji。 片仮名 was created by doing the same to just one half of various kanji。 here are some examples：

sound	kana	original kanji
hiragana "i"	い	以
katakana "i"	イ	伊
hiragana "ho"	ほ	保
katakana "ho"	ホ	保

平仮名 literally means "flat substitute names"⁵， presumably as they are relatively unchanged (flat) and the syllables are substituted for those kanjis' usual sounds⁶。 the word "平仮名" is often written in the hiragana alphabet： ひらがな。 as you can see， hiragana tends to be curvy and quite elegant。 it was originally largely used by court women⁷。 nowadays， hiragana is mostly used to write grammar things， as opposed to meaning (semantic) things。

片仮名 literally means "one-half substitute names"， no doubt referring to the way that only one half of the origin kanji were used。 the word "片仮名" is often written in the katakana alphabet： カタカナ。 as you can see， katakana tends to very sharp-edged and minimalist。 it was originally used as hiragana is now used： for grammar， inflections and the like， mostly by the male scholars of the day。 nowadays katakana is mostly used for foreign words of non-chinese origin and for italic-like emphasis。

all the "squiggles" in the example sentence at the top are hiragana。 all the complex parts are kanji。 there is no katakana in that example sentence： katakana is generally the least used of the three alphabets。


questions two and three will be answered in parts two and three of this series。 this article contains a number of japanese names。 i have written them all using the japanese order of last name followed by first name。


as usual， hover for readings to the japanese。 click to see the other articles in the amusing kanji/japanese series。


1. it gets much more complex than my gloss suggests：　read this if interested。


2. diacritics are special marks added to characters to indicated that the sound is modified in some way from what that character usually represents。 for example the acute and grave accents on french e's are diacritics： é and è。

in japanese there are two diacritics： a double dash and a circle， called 濁点 and 半濁点 respectively。 for example the japanese sound "ha" can be represented by the character は。 if you add the first diacritic， you get the sound "ba"： ば。 if you add the second diacritic， you get the sound "pa"： ぱ。


3. diphthongs are a type of combined sound。 in japanese， you can add the "ya" (や)， "yu" (ゆ) or "yo" (よ) sound at the end of some syllables to make a new mixed syllable。 these are not said as two separate syllables， but as a single combined syllable。

for example， the japanese sound "ki" can be written as き。 the three diphthongs for this are "kya"， "kyu" and "kyo"： きゃ， きゅ and きょ。

notice that the second squiggle is written smaller than the first。 this is so that you can distinguish between "ki-ya" (きや) and "kya" (きゃ)： the first having two syllables and the second being only one。 these diphthong sounds are often hard for english speakers to say correctly： they have a tendency to say them as if they are two syllables causing no end of confusion and amusement。


4. 平安 (heian) is the old name for 京都 (kyoto) and the period with that name started when the capital was moved there in 794ad。 the heian period continued to 1185 when the 源 (minamoto) clan managed to defeat the 平 (taira) clan， and brought japan under a military rule know as the 鎌倉幕府 (kamakura bakufu/shogunate)。

the capital was finally moved to 東京 (tokyo) - which， to make things even more complicated， was then called 江戸 (edo/yedo) - by 徳川家康 (tokugawa ieyasu) in 1600ad。 ieyasu was the first tokugawa clan 将軍 (shogun)。 he was helped to that position by the work of two great generals， 織田信長 (oda nobunaga) and 豊臣秀吉 (toyotomi hideyoshi)， who between them managed to unite japan under one government for the first time。

nobunaga was assassinated before he could finish consolidating his power。 nobunaga came from a small-time 侍 (samurai) family that ruled what is now 愛知 (aichi) prefecture - where the world expo is being held this year。 after inheriting from his father， he went on to conquer more and more of japan。 by all accounts， he was an incredibly arrogant， unpleasant and uncouth man， which probably contributed to his assassination。

hideyoshi came from a poor farming family and was nobunaga's servant as a child。 presumable it was in that position that he learnt the skills necessary to finish nobunaga's work。 hideyoshi was effectively shogun for a number of years， but didn't take that title because of his poor birth - instead he was called 関白 (kanpaku/kwanpaku)， which was something like a lifetime head of the civil service， or regent for an adult emperor。

hideyoshi had his first and only child in his sixties and married the infant son off into the aristocratic tokugawa clan。 ieyasu was the head of the tokugawa clan and took over the country on hideyoshi's death。 the rest is， as they say， history。 there should be enough keywords in that lot for you to find out much more！


5. an alternative， and possibly more likely， translation is "heian substitute names"。 the "hira" of "hiragana" and the "hei" of "heian" are the same kanji： 平。 this could be chance， or it could be deliberately chosen to mean that hiragana were kana made in the heian period。

the "heian" meaning is made more likely by the fact that the word "hiragana" was first used in the edo period (see note four) some eight hundred years after the hiragana were created。 previous to that， hiragana was just called 女手， or "female hand"： at that time， hiragana was almost exclusively used by women。


6. another word used to refer to kanji was 真名， meaning "real names"。 this is a direct contrast with the word used to refer to both syllabaries： 仮名， meaning "substitute names"。


7. the famous novel 源氏物語 (the tale of genji) was written using hiragana and kanji by a court woman of that period： 紫式部 (murasaki shikibu)。 it was supposedly the first novel anywhere in the world。 the invention of hiragana was a large part of what made it possible to write such a mammoth production in japanese。


as usual， hover for readings to the japanese。 click to see the other articles in the amusing kanji/japanese series。