Demystifying Kanji MaestroChristoforoAlfonsoPallavincinodaFirenze(baronforo@yahoo.com)KnownWorldHeralds&ScribesSymposium,2018

漢字)

龍

3

LookingupKanjiTypedIfyouarelucky,andhavefoundthewordyouwanttotranslateonacomputer-accessibleplace,simplycopyandpasteintoappropriatetranslationsoftwareorwebsite.IntheKomonjoexampleabove,thescannedoriginalisaccompaniedbytyped,legiblecopy.

ByradicalFromtheirbeginningsaspictogramsandideograms,manyKanjiareformedbycombiningtwoormoreparts,

onebeingaradicalwhichmaygiveacluetotherootoftheword.Forexample,thecharacters晴 (sunny),明

(bright),and星(star)allhavetheradical日(day/sun)whichisit’sowncharacteraswell.However,thisisnotalwaysthecase.

Radicalsareusuallyfoundbyposition,asshownonthechartbelow.

Source:https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/radicals.html

4

InJapanese,thereare214historicalradicals,someofwhichhavevariantformsbasedonpositionoftheradicalOnceyouidentifytheradical,therestofthecharactercanbefound.Usuallyindictionaries,Kanjiorderedbyradicalarethenlistedinorderofstrokecount.Someoftheradicalvariantsmayhavedifferentstrokecounts,anddictionariessuchasNelson’sTheModernReader'sJapanese-EnglishCharacterDictionarywillcross-referencetothefullradicalversion.

Source:TheModernReader'sJapanese-EnglishCharacterDictionary

Forexample,forthecharacter交,themeaningisfoundunderthetwo-strokeradical,withfourremainingstrokes.CompoundwordsfollowinorderofthestrokecountofthefollowingKanji.

5

ByStrokeCountMostdictionarieshavelistsofKanjibystrokecount,whichcanbeverytedious,buthelpsifyoucan’tfigureouttheradical.Strokesareeverylineyoucanmakewithoutpickingupyourbrush/pen,intheory.

However,cornersarealsosometimesmadeinonestroke,onlyifgoinglefttoright.

ByreadingIfbysomefortune,youknowhowthekanjiispronounced,youcanlookupallthekanjiwiththesamereadinginmostdictionaries.

WritingWiththeriseoftouch-screenandtrack-padtechnology,ithasbecomepossibletolookupKanjibydirectinputviahandwritingrecognition.Mostappsthatacceptdirectinputdonotcareaboutstrokeorder.Someappsandwebsitesthatacceptwritteninputarelistedattheend.Modernelectronicdictionariesalsohavetrack-padsthatacceptstylusinput.

à

6

Part2.StrokeOrderIngeneral,thestrokeorderistoptobottom,lefttoright,andfromtheoutsidein,EXCEPTwhenthereisacentralline,suchasthethreedotsabove,orthedotandverticalstrokeinthecharactertotheright.

Mostcalligraphybooksshouldgivethestrokeordernumberingswiththenumberatthebeginningofthestroke,soyouknowwheretostart.

Source:Kanji&Kana:HandbookandDictionaryoftheJapaneseWritingSystem(EnglishandJapaneseEdition)

Part3.TranslationtipsandadviceTranslationIssuesWritingreformsChinahasgonethroughseveralwritingreforms,mostnotablywiththePeople’sRepublicofChina(PRC)simplifyingcharacterstoincreaseliteracy.TheseSimplifiedChinesecharactersareusedinMainlandChinaandSingapore.TraditionalChinesecharactersareusedinTaiwan,HongKong,andMacau.Japanwentthroughtheirownreforms.In1922,thegovernmentcreatedanapprovedKanjilist,whichhas

gonethroughseveralrevisions.Currently,theJouyouKanji(常用漢字)numbers2,136charactersapprovedforregularandofficialuse.Alongwithapprovingcharactersforuse,somesimplificationsweremade.

7

HowdoesthisaffectSCAscribalwork?Sinceweseektorecreatepre-1600’swork,weneedtobeawarethatkanjichange,andmuchofourtranslationresourceswillusemoderncharacters.Forexample:

Lightning Country Dragon

TraditionalChinese

電光 國家 龍 SimplifiedChinese

电光 国家 龙 Japanese

電気光学国 竜 or 龍 Duetopolitics,somesitesandresourceswillfavorSimplifiedChineseoverTraditional,orvice-versa.Sincemostofthereformsarepost-period,IalwaystrytodefaulttoTraditionalChinesecharacters.So,ifIam

writing“Country”inaJapanesepiece,Iwillcheckmydictionariestoseeif國 wasusedinperiodJapan.

Nelson’sDictionaryandmanyotherswillhavelistsofolder,pre-simplifiedkanjionecancheckagainst.Also,withsimplification,somewordsinJapaneseareusuallywritteninkanabecausethekanjiissodifficulttowrite.However,forperiodworkthedifficultkanjiisbesttouse.

Rose

バラ 薔薇 Hawk

たか 鷹

GrammarissuesandwordbreaksTranslationsbeyondawordorsetphraseistrickyatbest,asthegrammarofJapaneseandChineseisvastlydifferentfromEnglish.Googletranslateandotheronlinesourcesarebetternowthaninthepast,butstillproblematic.FromtheKomonjoexampleabove,wehavethefollowingline:

永々在坂本事候其後 à EiyasakaSakamotoincidentafterthat

Breakinguprevealsthat永々在=eternallyoralongtime,坂本=Sakamoto,事候=cause,and其後 =afterthat.Princetontranslatesthetexttobe“You’vebeenatSakamotoforquitesometime,”becausetheoriginallineiswritteninkanbun,orChinese-style,wheremainlykanjiareused,sogrammarisimplied.

8

HomonymsAlso,manywordsinEnglishhavemorethanonemeaning,andonlinesourceswilltranslatetomodernlanguages.Also,Englishwordscanhavedifferentmeaningsandconnotations.IfyouneedtouseatranslationprogramtodoEnglishtoJapaneseorChinese,itisalwaysgoodtoreversethetranslationtocheck.

OrderoftheRoseàバラの注文 àRoseOrder,butcheckingthemeaningof注文 revealssynonymsof

sequence.Thepropertermwouldbeshou章, such as the Order of the Rising Sun (Kyokujitsu-sho 旭日章), butthattermismodeledontheEuropeansystemintheMeijiperiod.

AsJapandidn’tseemtohaveknightlyordersinperiod,othertermsneedtobeused.Fororders,Iusegumi

組, whichcanhavesomeproblematicmodernconnotations,buthasbeenusedasfarbackas578ADfortheworld’soldestcontinuouslyoperatingcompany,KongouGumi.Therefor,currentlyItranslateOrderofthe

Roseas薔薇組 (bara-gumi).

Dictionariesandotherbooks• Hadamitzky,WolfgangandMarkSpahn.Kanji&Kana:HandbookandDictionaryoftheJapaneseWritingSystem(EnglishandJapaneseEdition).TuttlePublishing,1989.ISBN0804813736/978-0804813730

• Nelson,AndrewN.TheModernReader'sJapanese-EnglishCharacterDictionary.TuttlePublishing,1990.ISBN0804804087/978-0804804080

• Fazzioli,Edoardo.ChineseCalligraphy:FromPictographtoIdeogram:theHistoryof214EssentialChinese/JapaneseCharacters.AbbevillePress,1987.ISBN0896597741/978-0896597747

•

Dictionaryapps• Midori(iOSapp)-iOSappstore–candrawkanjianddictionarywilltrytomatch.$9.99

• Imiwa?(iOSapp)–iOSappstore–canlookupbyradicals.Free.Kanjiexamplesfromwww.tatoeba.org–investigatethissite

• Kanjilookup(iOSapp)–iOSappstore–candrawkanji.Free,butwithads.

• gSho(android)–androidstore–needsinvestigation.Freebutads.

• Aedict3(android)–androidstore.$8.99similartoMidorioniOS.

• GoogleTranslateApp–iOSandAndroid–directinputcanbejumpy,butalsohasphotoandvoicetranslation.

WebsitesLearningradicals:https://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/radicals.html

Lookupbyradical:http://www.romajidesu.com/kanji_radicals/https://kanji.sljfaq.org/radicals.htmlhttps://www.kanshudo.com/search?cb=y

9

Lookupbystrokecount:http://www.japaneseverbconjugator.com/KanjiByStrokes.asphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kanji_by_stroke_count

Drawitout:https://kanji.sljfaq.org/draw.htmlhttps://translate.google.com–handwritingmode(inputstyleinthebox)http://www.qhanzi.com/index.html

OthersYearsandnumbersaswellasback-and-forth:https://jisho.org/Generaltranslation:https://translate.google.com/Kanjilearning(Japanese)https://www.wanikani.com/

Documents:http://komonjo.princeton.edu

Othersources:https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/look-up-kanji/https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kanji-stroke-order/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_charactershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji