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Alternative spelling for 戦闘機?

Mario_Wens

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31 May 2016
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I've noticed some brands of kit manufacturers do not use 戦闘機 for the word "fighter" or "fighter plane", but another spelling with the centre kanji replaced by another one. I have yet to find a single website using the same kanji, so I am unable to copy and paste it here. It is best described as a cross with the horizontal beam slightly diagonal to the lower left, with two small diagonal stripes in the top left quarter. You can see an example on this image:

http://www.oldmodelkits.com/jpegs/LS 153-450 Ki-109.JPG

Is this an older word for fighter, or does it have a subtlely different meaning?
 
奈良基地のF-86D 併せて戦斗 戰鬪 戦闘の文字研究

That would be 戦斗機

Same meaning and same reading. It is used in a non-standard way as an easier to write "shorthand" replacement.
I see, so am I correct in assuming the use of this "shorthand" would be unusual in a product description on a box, or is it common practice to mix "full" kanji and "shorthand"?

The speed with which questions are answered on this forum never ceases to amaze me. Many thanks!
 
I see, so am I correct in assuming the use of this "shorthand" would be unusual in a product description on a box, or is it common practice to mix "full" kanji and "shorthand"?

The speed with which questions are answered on this forum never ceases to amaze me. Many thanks!


You see these boxes a lot more than I do and would be a better judge of that.

That entire page I linked to was talking about nothing other than trying to figure out why the substitution was made at all and whether it was correct usage, etc. That plus the fact it doesn't come up as an option when converting Japanese input to kanji would make me think it isn't very common.

You're more likely to encounter shorthand/shortcuts in handwritten Japanese than in typeset Japanese.
 
You're more likely to encounter shorthand/shortcuts in handwritten Japanese than in typeset Japanese.
That confirms what I thought, thank you. The shorthand 戦斗機 confuses Google translate as well: it comes up with "cents machine" :D
 
Maybe 斗 just looks a bit more striking than 闘.
When surfing for clues, I found that the original name of the 1950's film "Gunfight at OK Corral" was translated as OK牧場の決闘, but in later releases it was changed to OK牧場の決 (same pronunciation). Maybe the alternate kanji adds a bit of drama to an otherwise ordinary word.
 
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