Japanese writing
This article describes the modern Japanese writing system and its history. See the Japanese language article for an overview of the language.
Modern Japanese uses three main scripts:
It is also possible to write Japanese in Roman letters. In Japanese, this is called rōmaji. The Japanese rarely use this system to write their own language, except for abbreviations (often of a technical nature) where it's becoming increasingly common (ex. CD, DVD).
Here is an example of a newspaper headline that uses all four scripts (a headline from the Asahi Shimbun on April 19, 2004) (kanji red, hiragana blue, katakana green, rōmaji and Arabic numerals black):
- ラドクリフ、マラソン五輪代表に１万ｍ出場にも含み
- radokurifu, marason gorin daihyō ni ichi-man mētoru shutsujō ni mo fukumi
- "Radcliffe, Olympic marathon contestant, will also appear in the 10,000 m"
Here are some examples of words written in Japanese:
| Kanji |
Hiragana |
Katakana |
Rōmaji |
English |
| 私 |
わたし |
ワタシ |
watashi |
I |
| 金魚 |
きんぎょ |
キンギョ |
kingyo |
goldfish |
| 煙草 |
たばこ |
タバコ |
tabako |
tobacco, cigarette |
Collation (word ordering) in Japanese is based on the kana, which express the pronunciation of the words, rather than the kanji. The kana may be ordered using two common orderings, the prevalent gojūon (fifty-sound), or the old-fashioned iroha, ordering. Chinese character dictionaries are also collated using the radical system.
Usage of scripts
The bulk of Japanese text is usually written in either kanji or hiragana, with some katakana.
Kanji (漢字) are used to write, for example,
See the article kanji for full details.
Hiragana (平仮名) are used to write, for example,
See the article hiragana for full details.
Katakana (片仮名) are used to write, for example,
- foreign words and names,
- onomatopoeia,
- emphasized words, much like italicized words in English text, and
- technical and scientific words, such as plant, animal, and mineral names.
See the article katakana for full details.
Rōmaji (ローマ字) are Roman characters, used to write
- acronyms and initialisms, for example NATO;
- Japanese names or other words intended for use outside of Japan (for example, Japanese names on business cards, in passports, etc.);
- company names, brand names or product names, etc. used both inside and outside of Japan; and
- foreign words and phrases that appear in an otherwise Japanese context, such as words that appear in advertising, on consumer goods intended for Japanese consumption, etc.
See the article rōmaji for details.
However, there are many exceptions to the above rules. For example, Japanese names may be written in kanji, hiragana or katakana. For full details, see the respective articles.
In addition, Arabic numerals are commonly used to write numbers in horizontal text.
Choice of script
All words in Japanese can be written in either katakana, hiragana, or rōmaji. Most words also have a kanji form. The choice of which type of writing to use depends on a number of factors, including standard conventions, readability, and stylistic choices.
Some Japanese words are written with different kanji depending on the specific usage of the word -- for instance, the word "naosu" (to fix, or to cure) is written 治す when it refers to curing a person, and 直す when it refers to fixing something. In some cases (such as the preceding one) the distinction is simple, whereas in some cases the distinction in nuance is difficult enough that an author will write the word in hiragana to avoid the possible error of choosing the wrong kanji.
Direction of writing
- Main article: Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts
Traditionally, Japanese is written in a format called tategaki. In this format, the characters are written in columns going from top to bottom, with columns ordered from right to left. After reaching the bottom of each column, the reader continues at the top of the column to the left of the current one. This copies the column order of Chinese.
Modern Japanese also uses another writing format, called yokogaki. This writing format is identical to that of European languages such as English, with characters arranged in rows which are read from left to right, with successive rows going downwards.
Early writing system
The current Japanese writing system can be traced back to the 4th century AD, when the written Chinese language was introduced to Japan. Although several kinds of supposedly earlier writing called jindai moji (神代文字, lit. "writing of the gods' age") have been found, some vaguely pictographic, some runic in appearance, and some very close to Korean Hangul, none have been conclusively proven to be genuine, and no definitive evidence of any native Japanese writing system that predates the introduction of Chinese is known to exist. Some kamiyo moji examples can be found here (Japanese only).
Initially, Chinese characters were not used for writing Japanese; to be literate meant the ability to read and write Classical Chinese. Eventually a system called kanbun (漢文) was developed, which used both Chinese characters (kanji) and something very similar to Chinese grammar, but often with diacritic marks placed alongside the Chinese text to give hints as to the Japanese equivalent. The earliest written history of Japan, the Kojiki (古事記), believed to have been compiled sometime before 712, was written in kanbun. Japanese schoolchildren are still taught introductory classes in kanbun.
There was still no system for rendering Japanese in written form until the development of man'yōgana (万葉仮名), which used Chinese characters for their phonetic value (derived from their Chinese readings) rather than their semantic value. Man'yōgana was initially used to record poetry, as in the Man'yōshū (万葉集), which was compiled sometime before 759, and from which the writing system derives its name. Hiragana and katakana were both outgrowths from man'yōgana.
Due to the large number of words and concepts entering Japan from China which had no native equivalent, many words entered Japanese directly, with a pronunciation similar to the original Chinese. This Chinese-derived reading is known as on-yomi (音読み), and this vocabulary as a whole is referred to as Sino-Japanese. At the same time, native Japanese already had words corresponding to many borrowed kanji. Authors increasingly used kanji to represent these words. This Japanese-derived reading is known as kun-yomi (訓読み). A kanji may have none, one, or several on-yomi and kun-yomi. Okurigana are written after the initial kanji for verbs and adjectives to give inflection and to help disambiguate a particular kanji's reading. The same character may be read several different ways depending on the word. For example, the character 行 is read i as the first syllable of iku (行く) 'to go', okona as the first three syllables of okonau (行う, "to carry out"), gyō in the compound word gyōretsu (行列, "line" or "procession"), kō in the word ginkō (銀行, "bank"), and an in the word andon (行灯, "lantern").
Linguists have sometimes compared Japan's borrowing and adaptation of Chinese words into Japanese as similar to the effect that the Norman conquest of the British Isles had on the English language. Like English, Japanese has many synonyms of differing origin, with words from both Chinese and native Japanese. In another similarity, words of Chinese origin are often used in more formal or intellectual contexts by Japanese speakers, just as English speakers often use latinate words to mark a higher register.
Written language reforms
Meiji period
The significant reforms of the 19th century Meiji era did not initially impact on the Japanese writing system, however the language itself was changing due to the increase in literacy resulting from education reforms, the massive influx of new words; both borrowed from other languages or newly coined, and the ultimate success of movements such as the influential 言文一致 (genbun'itchi) which resulted in Japanese being written in the colloquial form of the language instead of the wide range of historical and classical styles used previously.The difficulty of written Japanese was a topic of debate, with several proposals in the late 1800s that the number of kanji in use be limited. In addition, exposure to non-Japanese texts led to (unsuccessful) proposals that Japanese be written entirely in kana or romaji. This period saw Western-style punctuation marks introduced into Japanese writing (Twine, 1991).
In 1900, the Education Ministry introduced three reforms aimed at improving the education in Japanese writing:
- standardization of the hiragana script, eliminating the range of hentaigana (変体仮名) then in use;
- restriction of the number of kanji taught in elementary schools to about 1,200;
- reform of the irregular kana representation of the Sino-Japanese readings of kanji to make them conform with the pronunciation.
The first two of these were generally accepted, but the third was hotly contested, particularly by conservatives, to the extent that it was withdrawn in 1908 (Seeley, 1991).
Pre-WWII
The partial failure of the 1900 reforms combined with the rise of nationalism in Japan effectively prevented further significant reform of the writing system. The period before World War II saw numerous proposals to restrict the number of kanji in use, and several newspapers voluntarily restricted their kanji usage and increased usage of furigana, however there was no official endorsement of these, and indeed much opposition.
Post-WWII
The period immediately following World War II saw a rapid and significant reform of the writing system. This was in part due to influence of the Occupation authorities, but to a significant extent was due to the removal of conservatives from control of the educational system, which meant that previously stalled revisions could proceed. The major reforms were:
- the alignment of all kana usage with modern pronunciation (現代仮名遣い gendaikanazukai), replacing the old historical kana usage (1946);
- the promulgation of the tōyō kanji (当用漢字), which limited the number of kanji used in schools, textbooks, etc. to 1,850 (1946);
- the promulgation of an approved set of forms of kanji to be used in schools (1949);
- the promulgation of an additional jinmeiyō kanji (人名用漢字) which in combination with the tōyō kanji could be used in names (1951).
(At one stage there was a proposal from an advisor in the Occupation administration to change the writing system to rōmaji, however it was not supported by other specialists and did not proceed.) (Unger, 1996)
In addition, the practice of writing horizontally in a right-to-left direction was generally replaced by left-to-right writing. The right-to-left order was considered a special case of vertical writing, with columns one character high, rather than horizontal writing per se; it was used for single lines of text on signs, etc. (e.g. the station sign at Tokyo read 駅京東). This order is still seen on the right (or starboard) side of some commercial vehicles, ships, etc., where it is used so that the text runs from the front of the vehicle to the back (or from bow to stern) on both sides.
The post-war reforms have remained, although some of the restrictions have been relaxed. The replacement of the tōyō kanji in 1981 with the 1,945 jōyō kanji (常用漢字) was accompanied by a change from "restriction" to "recommendation", and in general the educational authorities have become less active in continued reform of the writing system (Gottlieb, 1996).
In 2004, a large increase was made in the number of kanji in the jinmeiyō kanji (this list is the responsibility of the Justice Ministry.)
Nuances of the writing system
The Japanese writing system allows for transmitting information that is usually communicated in other languages by using different words or by adding extra descriptive words. For example, kanji watashi or watakushi 私 "I" is often used in formal writing and by both sexes. Hiragana watashi わたし tends to be used by females in informal writing such as a diary or a letter to a friend. Katakana watashi ワタシ is used only rarely. Rōmaji watashi is never used, except perhaps in an all-rōmaji context.
Kanji compounds can also be given arbitrary readings for stylistic purposes. For example, in Natsume Soseki's short story The Fifth Night, the author uses 接続って for tsunagatte, the gerundive -te form of the verb tsunagaru ('to connect'), which would usually be written 繋がって or つながって. See also furigana for more details.
Romanization
Main article: Romaji.
There are a number of methods of rendering Japanese in Roman letters. The Hepburn method of romanization, designed for English speakers, is a de facto standard widely used inside and outside Japan (and used in the English Wikipedia). The Kunrei-shiki system has a better correspondence with kana, making it easier for the Japanese themselves to learn; it is officially sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, but rarely used outside Japan. Other systems of romanization include Nihon-shiki, JSL, and Wāpuro.
See also
Lettering styles
Variant writing systems
References
- Gottlieb, Nanette (1996). Kanji Politics - Language Policy and Japanese Script, Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7103-0512-5.
- Twine, Nanette (1991). Language and the Modern State - The Reform of Written Japanese, Routledge. ISBN 0-4150-0990-1.
- Seeley, Christopher (1984). "The Japanese Script since 1900". Visible Language XVIII 3: 267-302.
- Seeley, Christopher (1991). A History of Writing in Japan, University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0-8248-2217-X.
- Habein, Yaeko Sato (1984). The History of the Japanese Written Language, University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 0-86008-347-0.
- Unger, J. Marshall (1996). Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading Between the Lines, OUP. ISBN 0-1951-0166-9.
External links
