subject: The System of Japanese Kana-Kanji Part 2 [print this page] The System of Japanese Kana-Kanji Part 2 The System of Japanese Kana-Kanji Part 2
The System of Japanese Kana-Kanji Part 2
The Japa nese Kana-Kanji system has another spin on it's educational structure, in which, westerners who need to learn how to speak and decipher the Kana-Kanji without knowledge of their sy mbolic meanin gs. This system is known as Romaji; however, there are a few other obsolete character-syllables systems still existent in Japan such as: Man'yogana and Hentaigana. My discussion for this seond part blog will focus on these three systems and their importance to the continued cultivation of what procreates and innovates Japanese Kana-Kanji language system.
ROMAJI
[1]Romaji () is a westernized language system used to comprehend the Kana-Kanji character syllable system. Romaji was originally developed in the 16th century by a Japanese catholic named Yajiro. In 1548, he developed this system for the other Portuguese Jesuit to interpret that text to native Japanese speakers. From this eugenic language foundation, there came the first Japanese-Portuguese Dictionary called (Nippo(n) Jisho) which was produced in 1603.
For instance, take the word "pan" in Japanese and Spanish they have similar meaning, but in Portuguese it is speeled "po," which means "bread." Also, there is the term "ja" that has several different colloquial meanings in Japanese-Portuguese-Spanish that could mean "yeah right" or "ok" or "hmm". Thus, combining all these fluxes into grammatical expressions, I am sure the cultures all share a commonality in different parts of their countries communities. Hence, this example soldify my theory of the birth of colloquial expressions and how they derive from indigenous backgrounds and foreign explorer cultures of Europe into the present that express these terms.(This is an whole other subject to discuss for another blog I plan to write at a later time.)
Furthermore, there were three romanized system that derived from this westernized language format:
Hepburn romaji (Hebon-shiki Romaji ) = this systems is aligned with the phonological nature of English romance novels and the innate method of Anglophone (English speaking language phonetics). This method is primarily used by foreign scholars and students in Japan.
Nihon-shiki (= this system was phonetically-morphically instituted for the Japanese language; also, it is loosely semantic, stylistically, to Kana and has been standardized as ISO 3602.
Kunrei-shiki (= A mild altered version of Nihon-shiki, but retains similarities with Hepburn romaji in that it eliminates differences in Kana and demonstrates the sound in a similar fashion; also, it is ISO 3602, which is taught to 4th grade level Japanese students.
These romaji systems have been cultivated through the centuries. Furthermore, as each character is expressed in a more westernized scope, the question to remain is: how did Kana develop its syllabary within the context of the character systems that already existed in Japan from Chinese character-syllables?
MAN'YOGANA
[2]Man'yogana () is one of Japan's antiquated writing systems providing the use of Chinese characters. The eldest idiosyncratic would be the Inariyama Sword that was excavated in 1968; then in 1978, X-ray analysis revealed the inscription were Chinese characters used as Man'yogana. Man'yogana kanji seem to implore more phonetic than semantic importance.
There are two types of Man'yogana that exist:
Shakuon kana () are on'yomi based on Sino-Japanese syllables of one or two [3]mora (is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress or timing) in some languages).
Shakkun kana () are from kun'yomi based syllables of one to three mora.
The above chart is an example of man'yogana kanji parts forming katakana;
We could point out that hiragana resulted from a completely sousho style of man'yogana and that katakana was created by Buddhist monks as a shorthand format of writing man'yogana. What is even more interesting is man'yogana is used mainly in regional names where loanwords are utilized in a phonetic value. Acknowledging this fact about man'yogana, what could we entail about the historical and influential significance of hentaigana?
HENTAIGANA
[4]Hentaigana () is what you call "variant kana" which is a kana more phonetic than semantic in its definitions. Hentaigana was used incompatible until the 1900 when there was the existence of one character per mora; however, they are not included with the ISO unicodes. Hentaigana has considerable use when recognized in handwritten documents for certificates given by classical Japanese cultural group (for example, martial art schools, etiquette schools, and religious schools, etc.) and many of the soba shops have signs spelled in hentaigana ( example: kisoba). Too note: hentaigana is very incomprehensible to many Japanese only to be recognized in the shops, or in contextual interpretation.
Below are examples of Hentaigana in cursive forms of the similar kanji in standard hiragana counterparts, bu simplified differently with others man'yogana kanji.
CONCLUSION
This blog has allowed me the time to understand the language system of Japanese Kana-Kanji. Thus, my investigation has aided me to profoundly bridge the gap in what i believe is a derivative of how languages are formed in the eastern format. As a western, i have so much more to learn and a dire desire to saturate all the knowledge and information made available to me to be a speaker of the Japanese language. My only question to end this blog is having the acquired knowledge to speak Japanese how and would this give me an affirmation of what Japanese culture is about? Better yet, would this entitle me to more facades of a cultural very rich in history, majesty, and antiquity? as the expression goes
Mateba kairo no hiyori kana ( After a storm, comes the calm. (If you wait, calm weather for sea routes will come.)
REFERENCES
[1] Romanization of Japanese. (2010, August 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:34, December 17, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanization_of_Japanese&oldid=381107443
[2] Man'ygana. (2010, August 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:34, December 5, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Man'ygana&oldid=379653687
[3] Mora (linguistics). (2010, November 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:35, December 5, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mora_(linguistics)&oldid=395321985
[4] Hentaigana. (2010, August 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:36, December 5, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hentaigana&oldid=381249198
