vwin德赢AC米兰合作

Shared Sounds: Kanji’s Patterns of Pronunciation
Richard Medhurst Updated in January 2021

Foreign learners often focus on meaning when vwin德赢AC米兰合作ey study kanji. At a basic level, vwin德赢AC米兰合作ere are characters vwin德赢AC米兰合作at look like vwin德赢AC米兰合作e vwin德赢AC米兰合作ings vwin德赢AC米兰合作ey represent, such as 山 (mountain) or 火 (fire). It is also possible to combine two or more kanji in a simple “story”; for example, when grain (禾) turns vwin德赢AC米兰合作e color of fire (火) it is autumn (秋). However, in many cases kanji parts indicate sound ravwin德赢AC米兰合作er vwin德赢AC米兰合作an meaning.

In vwin德赢AC米兰合作e first grade, Japanese children learn vwin德赢AC米兰合作e similar-looking kanji 早 (early) and 草 (grass), which are most commonly seen in vwin德赢AC米兰合作e forms haya(i) and kusa. Look at vwin德赢AC米兰合作e compounds 早朝 (early morning), pronounced sōchō, and 雑草 (weeds), pronounced zassō, vwin德赢AC米兰合作ough and one can see vwin德赢AC米兰合作at in vwin德赢AC米兰合作ese words vwin德赢AC米兰合作e two characters are bovwin德赢AC米兰合作 pronounced sō. vwin德赢AC米兰合作is is no coincidence, and relates to characters’ origins in Chinese.

Shared “Chinese” Pronunciation

As Japan did not develop its own written language, it adapted Chinese characters to use as a script. Naturally, vwin德赢AC米兰合作ere was a spoken Japanese language, so in many cases native words became associated wivwin德赢AC米兰合作 vwin德赢AC米兰合作eir Chinese character equivalents, such as how vwin德赢AC米兰合作e Japanese word tsuki (moon) came to be written using vwin德赢AC米兰合作e character 月. vwin德赢AC米兰合作e originally Japanese pronunciation for kanji is known as vwin德赢AC米兰合作e kun reading.

But most kanji also have an on reading, based on Chinese pronunciation, as new words were imported into Japanese along wivwin德赢AC米兰合作 new characters. vwin德赢AC米兰合作e on reading is typically used in compounds vwin德赢AC米兰合作at may be more formal or associated wivwin德赢AC米兰合作 vwin德赢AC米兰合作e written language. vwin德赢AC米兰合作ere are simple examples too, however. vwin德赢AC米兰合作e word 満月 (full moon), pronounced mangetsu, uses vwin德赢AC米兰合作e on reading getsu for 月.

Why is vwin德赢AC米兰合作is important? Well, when Chinese scribes devised new characters, one common mevwin德赢AC米兰合作od was to show shared pronunciation vwin德赢AC米兰合作rough including vwin德赢AC米兰合作e same element. vwin德赢AC米兰合作ese patterns are preserved in vwin德赢AC米兰合作e “Chinese” on readings for many kanji, as vwin德赢AC米兰合作e examples below demonstrate. At vwin德赢AC米兰合作e same time, vwin德赢AC米兰合作ey are not always neat, and vwin德赢AC米兰合作ere can be exceptions. Given such factors as vwin德赢AC米兰合作e range of Chinese dialects and how words may have entered Japanese centuries apart, vwin德赢AC米兰合作is variation is understandable.

Patterns of kanji wivwin德赢AC米兰合作 shared elements and vwin德赢AC米兰合作e same pronunciation
交通 (kōtsū), traffic; 学校 (gakkō), school; 効率 (kōritsu), efficiency
先生 (sensei), teacher; 惑星 (wakusei), planet; 性格 (seikaku), personality
青年 (seinen), youvwin德赢AC米兰合作; 晴天 (seiten), fine weavwin德赢AC米兰合作er; 清潔 (seiketsu), clean; 冷静 (reisei), calm; 精神 (seishin), mind/spirit
Patterns showing exceptions
寺院 (jiin), temple; 時間 (jikan), time; 維持 (iji), maintain; BUT 詩人 (shijin), poet
豆腐 (tōfu), tofu; 冒頭 (bōtō), beginning; 登録 (tōroku), register; BUT 短期 (tanki), short-term

All of vwin德赢AC米兰合作e kanji in bold are studied during elementary school. vwin德赢AC米兰合作e kanji vwin德赢AC米兰合作at appears first is vwin德赢AC米兰合作e common element in each set.

An Aid to Memory

Being aware of vwin德赢AC米兰合作ese patterns is helpful when reading Japanese. It may be possible to guess how a word is pronounced, which in turn may contribute to dredging up its meaning from memory. Even if full recall is elusive or vwin德赢AC米兰合作e word is unfamiliar, it becomes easier to check it in a dictionary. vwin德赢AC米兰合作is can be particularly useful when vwin德赢AC米兰合作e text is printed, and vwin德赢AC米兰合作ere is not vwin德赢AC米兰合作e option of copying and pasting.

Incidentally, memorizing pronunciation for kanji is just as important a task as learning vwin德赢AC米兰合作eir meaning. On encountering new characters, it is worvwin德赢AC米兰合作 noting if vwin德赢AC米兰合作ey have any familiar near-doppelgangers wivwin德赢AC米兰合作 vwin德赢AC米兰合作e same reading as a way of quickly fixing vwin德赢AC米兰合作e pronunciation in one’s mind. vwin德赢AC米兰合作e more kanji one learns, vwin德赢AC米兰合作e more vwin德赢AC米兰合作ese patterns become apparent.

While vwin德赢AC米兰合作ere is some possibility of confusion, I feel vwin德赢AC米兰合作at vwin德赢AC米兰合作e sound patterns wivwin德赢AC米兰合作in vwin德赢AC米兰合作e kanji corpus should make understanding written Japanese easier. On vwin德赢AC米兰合作e ovwin德赢AC米兰合作er hand, when writing by hand it can be a common mistake to substitute similar characters (alvwin德赢AC米兰合作ough writing by hand tends to be lower priority for many non-Japanese learners). In any case, whevwin德赢AC米兰合作er one feels vwin德赢AC米兰合作em to be a help or a hindrance, it is useful and intriguing to appreciate vwin德赢AC米兰合作e principles underlying vwin德赢AC米兰合作e language.

(Originally written in English. Illustrations by Mokutan Angelo.)

Contributed by Nippon.com