Learn about Kanji - Κέντρο Ξένων Γλωσσών

Home

Kanji (ideograms)

Learn about Kanji

A very important part of the Japanese language are the ideograms, also known as Kanji (漢字), which represent images, just as the hieroglyphics used by Egyptians thousands of years ago did.

The truth is though, that most Kanji (漢字) that the Japanese use, actually come from China. Many of these were first created as paintings and, with the passage of time, were simplified into the shape we know today. Basically, each ideogram hides an image (idea) that is illustrated on each one of these. For example, let’s take the original image (idea) from which the ideogram person 字 is derived, and is pronounced HITO.

It is easy for someone to recognize the original image (idea) of a person and follow it through its evolution, always becoming more simple, until the person ideogram is illustrated using two lightly-curved lines.

Depending on the individual or combined use of ideograms, their pronunciation changes. In this way, a Kanji can be pronounced in two or more ways, something which can sometimes deter students. For example, the Kanji person 漢 which we just learned is pronounced JIN (漢字) or NIN (漢字).

Let’s see another example as to how the sun ideogram (字), which is pronounced HI or NICHI , and which can also mean day, developed:

The next Kanji is for tree. You can observe that the image has changed considerably from its original shape. Its pronunciation is KI or MOKU.

There are also instances where some Kanji are derived from others. For example, if we add a dash 本 to the ideogram of a tree 本 , then we create a new word 本 , which means base or book and is pronounced HON.

The next example is of the Japanese flag which has the sun as its symbol.

The word Japan is pronounced NI HON (日本): derived from the root 本 (HON) of the sun 本 (NI). For this reason we have the red sun of the east on the Japanese flag.

Finally, having a combination of the above ideograms NI HON 日本 (which mean Japan) and JIN 日 (which means person), a new word is formed: the word Japanese. We can observe this word in the following illustration:

From the aforementioned example, we can understand that there is a dynamic and logic in the use of ideograms with regard to how nationalities are illustrated. The name of each nationality is derived from the Kanji name of each country and the Kanji person.

These examples and the philosophy of ideograms could convince even the most distrustful that the learning of the Japanese language is no more difficult than that of any other foreign language since is it simplified in some matters, as in the fact that there are no numbers (singular-plural) and gender (masculine-feminine-neuter). All we have to do to establish this is study the above example more carefully. It becomes apparent that whether we are speaking of five Japanese women or one Japanese man, in the Japanese language, we use the same word: NI HON JIN 日 本人. If we wish to be more specific, all we need do is to put the number of person about whom we’re speaking in front of their gender.

Generally, Asian languages are more abstract when compared to European ones, and this is a cultural phenomenon. Therefore, if we want to avoid giving specific information, it would be easier to use this more abstract form.