Divergence of Japanese and Chinese kanji

cod2

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I know that kanjis are of Chinese origin, but how much do Chinese and Japanese kanjis overlap today?

For example, when a brand new concept needs expressing, surely Japanese people create their own new kanji, whereas the Chinese may create something completely different to express the same thought. So have the two systems been diverging ever since kanjis were brought into Japan? How much is still common between the two systems?

Thanks.
 
Of course, the two systems have diverged quite a bit; though kanji was brought into Japan several times throughout history, not just once.

At first, Japanese scholars used kanji to write in Chinese rather than Japanese. Eventually they moved on to using kanji to represent the sounds of the Japanese language phonetically rather than ideographically. It was during this time that you were likely to see kanji being used in words completely unrelated to their Chinese meanings (even today, some words are ateji and written with kanji based not on their meanings but their readings).

As time went by, kanji we're reworked into the familiar kana systems that we see today. This greatly simplified the writing system by allowing inflectional endings (okurigana) to be written in a semi-standardized way (since previously, any number of kanji could be used to represent the same phonetic syllable in Japanese).

So, that's one way in which they have diverged in the two languages. Yes, the Japanese have created some kanji, some kanji have evolved, and some kanji changed over the centuries in China to be reintroduced to Japan multiple times.

Also, Chinese went through a simplification process and many kanji (hanzi in Chinese I do believe) look radically different (sometimes only consisting of a small part of their original form) than they once did.

Yes, some kanji still retain similar meaning between the two languages, but nowhere near enough for a document written in one language to be intelligible to a speaker of the other.

An example of this divergence is 手紙. As far as I know, in both Chinese and Japanese, 手 means "hand" and 紙 means "paper". But while the compound meaning of 手紙 in Japanese is "letter", in Chinese it means "toilet paper".
 
Thanks for your reply.

What about recent developments? Has Japan created any brand new kanji to express a recent concept where China has created a different symbol altogether? I am not talking about kanji compounds, but invidual kanjis themselves.
 
There have been no recent creation of kanji (and there won't be: there's too many practical problems, although I suppose someone might do it as an artistic thing).

New combinations of kanji and kana (for Japanese) are used. Katakana words of foreign origin are common (e.g. スマホ as a shortening of "smartphone" is a recent one), but new kanji combinations occur as well. There's a possiblity that these new words might get started in China and brought over to Japan, or vice versa, in which case the words might be the same/similar even if the concept is new. Or the words might be different entirely.
 
There have been no recent creation of kanji (and there won't be: there's too many practical problems, although I suppose someone might do it as an artistic thing).
If I created a new kanji by piecing together familiar character elements in a novel way, would the result be likely to convey any meaning, or impression, to native Japanese speakers? Can anyone think of any examples where a particular meaning, that most people would understand, could be created from a newly invented kanji?
 
Only as jokes and "brain teaser" puzzles.

Like these:
fakekanji2gif-1.webp
 
Only as jokes and "brain teaser" puzzles.

Like these:
OK, cool. Could anyone explain the jokes and puzzles involved here? (Or just a couple of typical ones if explaining them all is too much work.)
 
#2 is probably Dumbo the Flying Elephant and #8 is very obviously goldfish. The others would require some thought.
 
my attempt

3. spacecraft
5. ant lion
6. high heels
7. girlfriend
 
Oh yeah, actually even I can see "goldfish" and "girlfriend" now I look properly!
 
#9 looks like jailhouse crew.

Did I miss something?
 
9 is probably "angel", 10 is a reference to "paper tiger" maybe?

While we're on the subject of kanji puzzles, there are plenty of なぞなぞ which are about kanji:
空にいる虫ってなーんだ?
虫が絵をかいたら何になる?
水を一瞬で凍らせる方法ってなーんだ?
 
First one is 虹

....
 
And the last one is 水 → 氷.
I have no clue about the 2nd one, though...

Thank you for sharing great なぞなぞ, nekojita san! :)
 
And the last one is 水 → 氷.
I have no clue about the 2nd one, though...

Thank you for sharing great なぞなぞ, nekojita san! :)

空を飛ぶ象はだ~れ?

....
 
空にいる虫 was "ハエ" (on the site where I took these from: most of the time I'm just happy if I understand why the answer is what it is, and I didn't get this one).
 
空を飛ぶ象はだ~れ?

Oh, no, I really do not have any clue at all! Help!

空にいる虫 was "ハエ" (on the site where I took these from: most of the time I'm just happy if I understand why the answer is what it is, and I didn't get this one).

Ahhh, now I got it! :)
ハエ are within the kanji 空!
(Under ウ kammuri the two radicals look like ハ and エ)
 
1 = るす。(人のないウチはるす。)
2 = ダンボ (Dumbo)
3 = スターシップ (starship, like the Enterprise)
4 = カッター (cutter, a small ship)
5 = サンド・ワーム (Sandworm. What, you've never read "Dune"?)
6 = ハイ・ヒール (high heels)
7 = ガールフレンド (girlfriend)
8 = ゴルドフィッシュ (goldfish)
9 = ウィングマン (wingman)
10 = ペパータイガー (paper tiger)
 
Could somebody explain me what happens here, and how
П
could be transformed to 1 = るす。(人のないウチはるす。)
 
Could somebody explain me what happens here, and how
П
could be transformed to 1 = るす。(人のないウチはるす。)

内 minus 人

"uchi" also means "home" and the condition of not being at home is "rusu". Although if you want to be nitpicky I believe "rusu" refers to a person's absence and not a house with nobody home. But in that case, it could be said that "uchi" means "period of time", except that "nai" would then need to be "inai" giving 人のいないウチはるす, but it is only a lighthearted pun so there is no need to get stuck on minor technicalities.
 
it is only a lighthearted pun so there is no need to get stuck on minor technicalities.
Ouch! I do not think that some day I could be so proficient in japanese, that I could create and solve jokes like that.
Big respect to all You guys! :gohan:
 
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