Comments on: Kokuji: “Made In Japan,” Kanji Edition

By: ragu.u

ragu.u — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 06:18:00 +0000

“込 = 辶 (road) + 入 (enter) = ‘crowded’ ” – I studied Chinese and I’m 1/3 Han Chinese myself and I must say that I don’t think that
辶 means road. It’s actually the character: 辵 which means walk; walking. It’s an ideogrammic compound (會意): 彳(“walk”) + 止 (“stop”). I’m no expert and Chinese is just my second language so I need an expert’s verification of what I read from the internet but for the sake of clarification. When used as a radical, it has the following variation: 辶/辶/𠔇. 辶 (Traditional)/ 辶 (Simplified/ also, in Japanese). Other ideogrammic compounds which have the characters include 徒 (disciple, follower), 徙 (move one’s abode, shift, migrate), 從 (from). Verifiable source: Mostly from Wiktionary (All credits go to the hard work of the original authors and researchers). Similar to 足 (foot) -> ⻊and 走 (walk/ run – also, 赱/𧺆) when used as radicals. Source: Cojak Hanzi Dictionary. Please note that for all characters, I used some meanings to what would immediately be thought of for each Hanzi without the context. 足, for example, can also mean attain, satisfy, enough. Remember: “The radical form ⺼ looks very similar to 月 (“moon”)”? I’m also interested in learning Japanese. It’s different from Chinese, of course. Cool blog. :P :)

By: ragu.u

ragu.u — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:28:00 +0000

You may have dealt with the simplified Hanzi characters. if you were planning to learn Kanji, you might have to learn more on the traditional characters like the one’s in Taiwan, although, traditional characters are also used in some special cases like shop signs to add some cultural feel in Mainland China. :) In Japanese, though, they have simplified characters (a few similar to simplified Chinese) called Shinjitai, different from Ryakuji but Japanese kept more of the traditional forms. Then again, Japanese and Chinese are two different languages that share some similarities. :P

By: ragu.u

ragu.u — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:20:00 +0000

Crotch can also mean anything that forks, like a road. It’s in the modern usage of the word that the anatomical crotch became widespread. Before, it just refers to that part of the pants. In Chinese, they have characters that refers to a fork: 叉, 襠 (in both it’s old and new sense), 岔 in 岔路 (a forked road), 歧 in 歧視 (discrimination), etc. They have characters for crossroad as well which can also mean highway in ancient times like 衢 (thoroughfare) but of course, in modern times, these a treated as literary words. It’s quite rare to use them in daily life as they can create many puns, unlike Japanese. In those cases, there are compound words coined.

By: ragu.u

ragu.u — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:10:00 +0000

There’s a word in Japanese, I believe: 労働 (ろうどう) meaning manual labor. Similar to Chinese: 劳动/ 勞動. There is also 工作 as an alternative translation similar to Japanese, 仕事, I think?

By: ragu.u

ragu.u — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:06:00 +0000

Kinda reminds me of the mystery behind the “biang biang noodles character” in China. Very interesting just like the rare/ complex characters in both languages. :)

By: ragu.u

ragu.u — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:03:00 +0000

Sorry. I don’t know how to edit a comment. Please ignore: “Of course, when writing, it is more convenient to use the character 月 as radical, but it’s understood to be 肉, not 月.” I’m no expert but I think the two characters have distinct strokes even in radical form. It just happens that the radical for flesh resembles the moon character, but they are different. Yikes. My apologies… :(