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Does Japanese Really Need Kanji?

Is the kanji system necessary to the Japanese language?


  • Total voters
    28
Those aren't explanations for the characters' composition - they're silly mnemonics that you made up on the spot. Definitely helpful for remembering the characters, but not for showing logic in them. If a groom needs a woman, then a bride needs a man, right? But 嫁 doesn't contain 男. And why do "forget" and "busy" (忙) get to use "die", but "kill" doesn't?
 
See Rule 13:

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

"Kanji" is neither a synonym of nor a blanket term for "logogram" or "icon". It quite literally means "Chinese character".

Kanji is logographic type of writing system. What you said is as if one says a blue bird is not blue because blue is a color not a bird!
Ancient Scripts: Types of Writing Systems

Those aren't explanations for the characters' composition - they're silly mnemonics that you made up on the spot. Definitely helpful for remembering the characters, but not for showing logic in them. If a groom needs a woman, then a bride needs a man, right? But 嫁 doesn't contain 男. And why do "forget" and "busy" (忙) get to use "die", but "kill" doesn't?

Regarding your label "silly mnemonics", these mnemonics are the reason Japanese draw manga and make Toyota but ABCD guys brew Carlsberg and fall straight down like "I" and they have "S" vision.

女 woman goes to house 家 and becomes a wife 嫁.
I am so busy 忙, my heart 心 is dead 亡.

If a groom needs a woman, then a bride needs a man, right? But 嫁 doesn't contain 男.
because 男 has 7 strokes, 女 has 3. 女 appears mostly is words about security, safety, fondness, good, peace, etc 男 appears mostly in topics about power。 Besides 女 is a radical whereas 男 is made up 力 and 田.
 
Kanji is logographic type of writing system. What you said is as if one says a blue bird is not blue because blue is a color not a bird!

What radical is ❤️ under?

Your bluebird analogy is asinine. All kanji may be logographic but that doesn't mean all logographs are kanji.
 
Your bluebird analogy is asinine. All kanji may be logographic but that doesn't mean all logographs are kanji.

Your fallacious statement that Kanji is not logogram is here:

"Kanji" is neither a synonym of nor a blanket term for "logogram" or "icon". It quite literally means "Chinese character".

What radical is ❤️ under?
❤️ is 心. A muscle with three veins. And it is a radical, part of many other characters (ideograms, logograms)

If the shape of heart doesn't satisfy you, here's Baybayin script:

Baybayin_alpha.jpg

250px-BaybayinSample.svg.png

But it's a syllabic language, not logographic.
 
悲怒虑忌惫
This is tree 木 and appears in 朲 朳 朴 朵 朶 朷 朸 朹 机 朻 朼
Speaking strictly, most of them are hanzi, not kanji.

息 means breath (heart pumps oxygen, 自 means oneself so 息 keeps you alive, breathing keeps your heart beating)
殺 kill, 几 (many) ㄨ(marks) and hitting 又 (again) with 木 (wood) to kill him.
査 (investigate) = 且 (further) investigation in needed around that 木 / also eyes are 目 which makes sense because we use eyes to check/investigate
婿 (groom) needs a wife! 月 (moon) 正 (correct): A husband corrects her wife's periods!
自 originally means "nose"; "nose + heart (pumping) = breath".
The original form of "木" in 殺 is 朮 "millet". It has nothing to do with "wood". (Incidentally, the right half 殳 means "action".)
且 and 目 are completely different.
疋 and 正 are completely different, too. The former one means "foot".

It's too much shortsighted to analyze kanji just by the present form of them. You can get these basic ideas even just from wiktionary or something. (I strongly recommend referring to 白川静's works for the etymologies of kanji, though.)
 
Your fallacious statement that Kanji is not logogram is here:

I see you have trouble grokking simple English sentences...

"Kanji is not a synonym of logogram" does not mean "Kanji are not logograms". "Kanji is not a blanket term for logogram" does not mean "Kanji are not logograms".

But since you think "All logograms are 漢字 (Chinese characters)" then you are either being a deliberately obtuse troll or you lack the necessary capacity for engaging in intelligent discourse.

By your logic, since all your aunts are women you must think all women are your aunts.
 
But since you think "All logograms are 漢字 (Chinese characters)" then you are either being a deliberately obtuse troll or you lack the necessary capacity for engaging in intelligent discourse.

all logograms are kanji characters?! who on earth said that?
I suspect you run over too fast to serve your objective

in the analogy, bird and women are logogram. a blue bird or my aunt is kanji (a subset of a bigger genre) I know what 漢 and 字 mean.

ありがと toritorible for guide on etymology. I appreciate that
 
For the Chinese character for 'eye' confusion occurred due to ma (Chinese 'eye' character), which was a corruption of me (Chinese 'eye' character), as in mabayuki 'dazzling' (Chinese 'eye' character), but mabayuku.
These words use the same first Japanese character, not Chinese character:
mana 'the original Chinese characters from which Japanese kana have been borrowed.' maboroshi 'optical illusion' (originally maborosi, manporosi)
mabuta 'eyelids' (compare to Impossible Trident)
ma-ai 'interval; part of face between the eyebrows' (compare to Impossible Trident)
manazashi 'expression of the eye' (no Chinese 'eye' character)
manazashi 'gaze' (no Chinese 'eye' character), but ma-na-zashi (Chinese 'eye' character)

yep, this is "see you" in simplified Chinese 再见
and this is see you in Traditional 再見
So where is 目? What were the guys who simplified Chinese on?

Another thing, Japan uses 学 which is simplified of 學. I don't get it, Japanese sometimes use simplified sometimes traditional .....
 
Another thing, Japan uses 学 which is simplified of 學. I don't get it, Japanese sometimes use simplified sometimes traditional .....
The Japanese use their own simplified versions of traditional Chinese characters called 新字体. The result is that a given character can occur in three different variations: traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, and Japanese.
 
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