き and さ

[himeji]

I've encountered these with a break in the half-circle (if that makes any sense?) on the odd occasion (I can't find any now!).

Just when I was making a little progress, too.

Since the above seem to be the usual representations what's the deal with the oddments I've seen?

 

[tada]

I've encountered these with a break in the half-circle (if that makes any sense?) on the odd occasion (I can't find any now!).
Just when I was making a little progress, too.
Since the above seem to be the usual representations what's the deal with the oddments I've seen?

き and さ are this way printed. Written, people often skip part of the half-circle.

 

[himeji]

Ah! thanks.

I've heard about people hand-writing hiragana differently but never actaully seen any yet, which is not too surprising: these must be my first (even though they were 'printed' on screen).

 

[Buntaro]

Himeji,

The top half of the semi-circle is called a drag-stroke. Both using and omitting the drag-stroke is considered acceptable.

This is another reason why kana and kanji strokes must be written in the proper order. Drag-strokes make kana and kanji unreadable when they appear in the wrong place.

 

[grapefruit]

き and さ are this way printed. Written, people often skip part of the half-circle.

This is off topic, but the other day I found out that the first letter of "Saitama City" is officially written in the printed style (the half circle part is connected) even if it is written by hand. Saitama City, my hometown, is a newly created city and its naming was controversial. So, when you write "さいたま市" by hand, please connect the half semicircle part!

 

[tada]

Another off-topic question: Why is Saitama written as さいたま instead of 埼玉 in places like weather forecasts? Every other ken/fu/to is written in kanji.

 

[grapefruit]

I heard somewhere it was because the first character of Saitama is not on the jooyoo kanji hyoo (The list of kanji that is supposed to represent commonly used kanji).

 

[Glenn]

And all this time I thought it was and wondered why 崎 got all the attention. As far as I'm aware they pretty much mean the same thing.

 

[grapefruit]

And all this time I thought it was and wondered why 崎 got all the attention. As far as I'm aware they pretty much mean the same thing.

you mean "埼" in "埼玉" (saitama) and "崎"？

 

[AJBryant]

And all this time I thought it was and wondered why 崎 got all the attention. As far as I'm aware they pretty much mean the same thing.

Well, yeah, but like 坂 and 阪, there is a specific set spelling for certain places. For example, Ôsaka is 大阪 (not 大坂) and Kitasaka is 北坂 (not 北阪).

Compare it with the times you see -ton vs -town in English place names.

Tony

 

[Glenn]

yyou mean "埼" in "埼玉" (saitama) and "崎"？

Yes, that's what I meant.

I guess the real loser, though, is 岬, which is similar in meaning but seems to nearly never be used.

 

[epigene]

Another off-topic question: Why is Saitama written as さいたま instead of 埼玉 in places like weather forecasts? Every other ken/fu/to is written in kanji.

さいたま is a new city formed by merger of 大宮, 浦和, 与野 and 岩槻 cities and the name written in hiragana is the proper name for the city.

The prefecture name is still 埼玉 . So, the name in hiragana always points to the city and not the prefecture.

You'll see similar cities (with names written in hiragana) in various parts of Japan as a result of the recent rush for administrative mergers, an effort to improve local government finances both in terms of national government subsidies and tax levy from citizens.

Edit: Oops! It was already mentioned!

 

[Glenn]

Why would that make them write the name in ひらがな?

 

[epigene]

Why would that make them write the name in ひらがな?

That's what the bureaucrats like, I guess.

There had been a lot of opposition from the local citizenry about new city names in many parts of Japan. I heard in the news that there was a lot of infighting about the Saitama name.

 

[grapefruit]

I guess it remains to be a mystery. Some say that that is because the original name 埼玉 actually refers to a different region within the prefecture (the area around 行田) so that the hiragana version was chose in consideration to this fact.... :bored:

 

[grapefruit]

http://www.city.saitama.jp/www/contents/1049099592015/html/common/other/46b32ae4076.pdf

The linked page only says that the name was chosen so that it will be easy to recognize and "親しみやすい".