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can someone clear up my kanji questions please

White Rose

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4 Dec 2006
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Ok so i made a thread about this before months ago, but couldn't figure out how to edit my post, wasn't sure what you guys thoughts are on reviving dead threads (most forums hate it), and eventually decided it was a better idea to make a new thread entirely, as i have (mostly) new questions!

I'll start with what i think i know, so you can correct me where i'm wrong and better my overall knowledge of kanji plzkthx :p.

Ok, so i know each kanji has at least a chinese reading (on'yomi), and a japanese reading (kun'yomi).

The on'yomi is the japanese approximation of the original chinese pronounciation, and the kun'yomi is the japanese word that means in japanese what the chinese word does in chinese... right?

So each kanji has one kun'yomi, and at least one on'yomi, some more than one as the chinese pronounciation of a character changed throughout different chinese dynasties (please correct me if i'm wrong).

And i also gather that some different kanji have identical on'yomi, so when this happens do you have to choose which kun'yomi has more relevance to a particular sentence?
I remember hearing one japanese person say that you can usually tell what a sentence is all about by taking a precursory glance at the kanji used in the sentence.
And i heard about some japanese guy in china, his wife fell sick, goes to the pharmacy where neither he nor the woman at the counter understood the others language, but they were able to communicate via kanji.

So yeah there's my ramble, but i do have a main question:

When are each type of meaning used? I've seen the kanji 山 used as part of the second name 'yamada', but i was told at one point that on'yomi are generally used unless the kanji is isolated, in which case the kun reading is used. Is this rule a complete fabrication, or is it a very general and loose rule with a lot of exceptions?

Also, with kanji compounds, are the readings just stacked to create the new word, in the sense that 'hedge' and 'hog' are stacked to make a new word in english (hedgehog) which has no similarity with the first two? And if so, which are the meanings stacked? on or kun?

Because in chinese i think you combine the hanzi 'machine' and 'fly' to make 'aeroplane'. So i was wondering if it was the same in japanese.

I was reading the wikipedia entry on 'remembering the kanji' and apparently one of that books main criticisms is that it doesn't allow for the many compounds. But i was wondering whether that was just that he only teaches you the english translation of the kun'yomi, and as such doesn't allow for the stacking of readings to create new words? Or are there compounds that when put together, don't have anything to do with the readings of the kanji used to create them?
For example if imaginary kanji that don't exist with the readings tate and gami existed, and together they formed a compound 'seiyuuki', would that be unheard of? Or does that kind of thing happen? Or would the compound 'tategami' be the only thing that could come out of it?

Forgive me if this is hard to follow, but i've never been very good at writing :p.
 
as with most things in life, it's more complicated than you think.

Most kanji have one or more onyomi, and any number of kunyomi. Some kanji don't actually have a specific reading (like 々). There are many kanji that only have one reading. There are words that use kanji compounds that have special readings (大人, 今朝). The list goes on.

Names and places have their own rules and exceptions; There are special readings for these purposes but generally you can try the kunyomi readings for your first guess.

Kanji are logographs, which means that meaning, and not a set of sounds, is tied to the character; this is why people who speak different languages are still able to communicate because they have kanji in common. This is evident in different kinds of Chinese that are completely different in the spoken language but identical on paper. It would be harder for a Japanese person to communicate with a chinese person, because the Japanese kanji set is not identical to Chinese, but they could get the point across.

However, just because kanji carry meaning doesn't mean that you can just haphazardly throw them together and expect it to make sense. Make sure a word actually exists before you try using it. I'm afraid I didn't understand what you meant in your last paragraph, so I can't answer that question. I've also been warned not to bother with remembering the kanji.
 
Wow, that's a lot to handle. I will address one part:

When are each type of meaning used? I've seen the kanji 山 used as part of the second name 'yamada', but i was told at one point that on'yomi are generally used unless the kanji is isolated, in which case the kun reading is used. Is this rule a complete fabrication, or is it a very general and loose rule with a lot of exceptions?

There are no reasonably consistent rules about when to use ON or KUN. Both are used in compounds quite often, and sometimes will be mixed together in a compound. The belief that "Kanji compounds usually use the ON reading" is a myth and a misinterpretation of the reality which should actually be worded, "ON readings are rarely used on their own, outside of compounds," but there are enough exceptions to that, too.

You're probably better off going out and experiencing kanji on your own. Just learn words, and how to read them in kanji. It doesn't really matter a ton whether the reading is ON or KUN.
 
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