does anybody recognize these kanji/characters?

N

Nijikun

後輩

8 Sep 2008

1

0

• 8 Sep 2008

• #1

Hi there.
I've got a question concerning these characters:

Are ALL of them japanese Kanji?
If so, could somebody tell me what they mean and how they are read? (on- and/or kun-yomi)
Or are these characters used for chinese only?
Please help me. I don't know where else I could look.
Best wishes,
Niji

 

P

pipokun

先輩

4 Feb 2005

2,559

46

• 8 Sep 2008

• #2

Or are these characters used for chinese only?

Click to expand...

Yes. It is not Japanese ones.

 

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

Moderator

Donor

Twenty-year veteran

8 Aug 2005

7,316

3,727

• 9 Sep 2008

• #3

why are they all rotated different ways?

 

AJBryant

先輩

Rest in Peace

6 Jan 2007

318

22

• 9 Sep 2008

• #4

Because it's yet another clueless tattoo clown.

 

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

Moderator

Donor

Twenty-year veteran

8 Aug 2005

7,316

3,727

• 9 Sep 2008

• #5

yeah that's pretty terrible. Nijikun, where did you find this?

 

grapefruit

先輩

2 Sep 2008

500

9

• 9 Sep 2008

• #6

These are kanji characters:
侭(jin)、戒(kai)、赦(sha)、悼(tou)

 

jeisan

Kongming

24 Feb 2003

3,523

69

• 9 Sep 2008

• #7

in mandarin

侭 -- jǐn -- to the limit -- 侭 is a variant of 尽
戒 -- jiè -- forbid
赦 -- shè -- pardon
悼 -- dào -- mourn

but why are they all positioned in differently from each other...

 

Glenn

一切皆苦

8 Jan 2004

7,842

200

• 9 Sep 2008

• #8

jeisan said:

侭 -- jǐn -- to the limit -- 侭 is a variant of 尽

Click to expand...

Are you sure? In Japanese at least 侭 is the simplification of 儘, and 尽 is the simplification of 盡.

 

jeisan

Kongming

24 Feb 2003

3,523

69

• 9 Sep 2008

• #9

Glenn said:

Are you sure? In Japanese at least 侭 is the simplification of 儘, and 尽 is the simplification of 盡.

Click to expand...

in mandarin both 儘 (jǐn) and 盡 (jìn) are simplified to 尽 which is it would be determined by tone.

 

Glenn

一切皆苦

8 Jan 2004

7,842

200

• 9 Sep 2008

• #10

That just reaffirms my hate of simplified Chinese. I mean it's two strokes for crying out loud!

 

jeisan

Kongming

24 Feb 2003

3,523

69

• 9 Sep 2008

• #11

the worst are the ones that are simplified to the same number of strokes, but just look different. 着 -- 著 for example

but 儘 and 盡 have a fairly similar meaning

 

Glenn

一切皆苦

8 Jan 2004

7,842

200

• 9 Sep 2008

• #12

In Japanese the difference is "in the state of.../as-is" and "exhaust/use completely," which are not similar, and which is why I said what I said about simplified Chinese.

 

jeisan

Kongming

24 Feb 2003

3,523

69

• 9 Sep 2008

• #13

aye, i was just complaining about simplified characters having the same number of strokes as the traditional version, don't understand the point...

now that i've checked it out more, as adverbs they're "to the greatest extent" and "to the utmost/limit" versus the verb forms which are "give priority to/keep doing something" and "exhaust/use up/end/put to best use"

...oh i still have so much to learn.

 

grapefruit

先輩

2 Sep 2008

500

9

• 10 Sep 2008

• #14

I was talking with my wife, a native speaker of Mandarin, about the characters 複 and 復 and how these two characters were merged into 復 in Mandarin. In writing a paper in simplified characters, she had trouble choosing the second character of chong2fu4, whether 複 or 復. I, native speaker of Japanese, also had trouble remembering which one. It turned out that the word is written as 重複 not 重復. Both characters 複 and 復 have almost the same meaning. Particularly, in this combination, "multiple" or "repeat". We mistakenly thought it should be 復, since the word means "to repeat."

Curiously, two characters in writing developed despite the fact that Old Chinese had only one word in speech. In Old Chinese, the two characters were pronounced the same. 儘 and 盡 or 着 and 著 had different pronunciations in old Chinese. So, it is no mystery that ancient Chinese invented these characters (儘, 盡, 着, and 著) to codify the separate words in speech. But, when it comes to 複 and 復, ancient Chinese people seem to have invented these two characters out of one word to highlight the subtle differences in the meaning of the word.

What an ingenuity (or a nightmare to those who intends to learn the language)!