Japanese/Kanji

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Kanji (漢字(かんじ)) characters are based on Chinese characters transmitted to Japan during the spread of Buddhism in the 5th century. A large percentage (approx. 70%) of Japanese vocabulary comes from Chinese or Chinese-derived words. While the meaning of individual characters is fairly consistent between the languages, compound words often have different meanings.

Kanji are inflected by hiragana that follow and particles give the case. Most words are written using kanji, though some have none and loan-words from other languages are generally written in katakana. The large number of homophones makes it highly desirable to use kanji and knowing them can help with memorising new words.

[edit] Furigana

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Furigana

Sometimes kanji characters will have their reading in hiragana written next to them. This combination is called furigana (振(ふ)り仮名(がな)) or yomigana (読(よ)み仮名(がな)). These are typically used in texts aimed at young people who aren't expected to have learnt the standard set of kanji yet, and when kanji outside that standard set are written (e.g. in newspapers).

[edit] Readings

A single Kanji letter can be read (pronounced) in many different ways, depending on its context. These readings are categorized into two main groups - that of Chinese origin (on-yomi, 音読(おんよ)み) and Japanese origin (kun-yomi, 訓読(くんよ)み). A third group, the nanoriyomi, is used for the names of people and places.

It is often the case that a Kanji letter has more than one reading of Chinese origin. This is because the importing of Chinese letters (with their readings) did not occur just at one time from one region.

[edit] Onyomi

Onyomi (音読み) is the Chinese reading, which is most commonly used in compound words and for the numbers.

It may be useful to note that in most kanji databases, the on reading is written in katakana instead of hiragana.

一 (イチ), 二 (ニ), 三 (サン), 四 (シ) are the first four numbers and all are onyomi.

[edit] Kunyomi

Kunyomi (訓読み) is the Japanese reading, which can be read as a separate word or can be used in compounds.

This reading is generally written in hiragana in kanji lists.

月 (つき, tsuki) and 日 (ひ, hi) are the moon and sun and are in kunyomi.

[edit] Nanoriyomi

Nanoriyomi (名乗り読み) is the name reading, which is used for people's names and for places.

Both "康", read as "やす" (e.g. 徳川家康), and "信", read as "のぶ" (e.g. 織田信長), are written in nanoriyomi.

[edit] Kanji Repetition

The noma: (々), symbol indicates the repetition of a Kanji. The word われわれ indicates "us" or "our group" and is written as "我々" instead of "我我", although they are both the same. The same is true with "人々" (ひとびと), meaning people).

[edit] JLPT

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Japanese Language Proficiency Test

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語(にほんご)能力(のうりょく)試験(しけん)), or JLPT, is a standardized test to evaluate and certify the language proficiency of non-native Japanese speakers. The JLPT has four levels beginning at level 4 and progressing to level 1 - the most difficult.

Each level has a certain set of kanji.

[edit] JLPT level 4

The fourth level tests students' recognition of about 100 kanji. Below are 80 of those (the old exam tested only these).

For the time being, the completion index is as follows:

: Some characters are missing.
: All characters are there, but there are readings missing.
: All characters have both onyomi and kunyomi readings, but not all have example words.
: All characters have example words, but a template or a stroke order image is missing.
: All characters have all their information set up in the template.