Questions tagged [orthography]
正書法. The standard way of writing the language.
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In vertical writing, what do these signs (that look like backticks) mean? [duplicate]
This is an extract from 窓ぎわのトットちゃん。
The teacher is talking about how Totto-chan ended up drawing a ふさ around her rendition of the flag of Japan. She is presumably quite astonished at this and my only ...
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How to say 一〇年 in a sentence [duplicate]
I see this structure a lot:
まるで一〇年以上.......
What does the 一〇 mean and how do I pronounce it? Is it いちまる?
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で at the beginning of a sentence
I hear native speakers using で or was it でー when speaking a lot at the beginning of a sentence. Judging by context, I think it translates to either "and" or "therefore" or "so" or "because of that", ...
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What constitutes as Kyūjitai Kanji?
The English Wikipedia page for Kyūjitai kanji begins with the following line:
Kyūjitai (舊字體/旧字体, literally "old character forms") are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written ...
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How much space is considered standard between consecutive "「" and "『"s?
In a text such as 「『捨てる 』技術」 how much space is expected between the first two characters in typography, if any?
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If it's okay to remove the punctuation in a modern text format of Kojiki (古事記)
The original version of the Kojiki looks like it has no punctuation whatsoever.
I found a more recent text version of Kojiki online though, which has all kinds of punctuation and formatting.
It has ...
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What is the middle character in Todd (Katakana) [duplicate]
While learning Katakana, I was instructed to try and translate my name Todd. I ended up with トド.
When I look it up online, I see トッド everywhere. ッ appears to be 'tsu'.
I think I am missing something ...
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What are the various 'unuttered' phrases or sentences that Japanese omit in everyday conversation and/or narration?
While translating a book I come across the following sentence.
女の子の注意を逸{そ}らすことができれば.....
Research into the ba ending allowed me to discover that the above is a 'unfinished' sentence. This in turn ...
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Correct method for writing full name in English and Japanese? [duplicate]
First name in English, then Japanese; followed by Last name in English, then Japanese:
Lucas 「ルーカス」Ramage「ラメージ」
First and last name in English, followed by first and last name in Japanese:
...
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Are 变 and 変 the same?
Is there a difference between 变 and 変 or are they different versions of the same thing i.e. traditional/simplified?
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Can 々 stand for a duplicated kanji with a different reading?
The title may not be so clear, here is what I mean:
々 is used to avoid repeating a kanji. In some cases, the two may not be pronounced the same because the first consonant of the second kanji is ...
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Variants of kanji radicals indicating Joyo vs Non-Joyo [duplicate]
I noticed that there is a variant of the 之繞 radical ⻌ which occurs in some words but not others. The variant is 辶 (with an extra stroke). It appears in words like 逢う and 槌.
It turns out that Non-Joyo ...
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How to express action (in plays, and online)
So in most languages we can either put text in italics or between asterisks to indicate what the speaker is doing. For instance:
Looking up
It will be raining soon
Or on the Internet:
*chewing your ...
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How does Japanese indicate a contextual scope changes like the internet vs. the Internet?
In english, word capitalization can indicate that meaning word has transitioned into different context and/or scope.
For example:
The internet is down. vs. The Internet is down.
Batman searched ...
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How to write こたえ: 答え or 答?
In the microsoft IME keyboard, and my cellphone's as well, when I write こたえ it is suggested 答え. However, in the Genki I textbook, I've seen it written as
答{こたえ}
Are both of these valid? If so, ...
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Why using です in katakana?
This question might sound stupid but it got me thinking for some hours. A friend bought me this gel pen from a Japanese store in my country, and it is written in the pen:
かわいいデス
instead of かわいいです ...
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What does 囚えよう mean in this book?
I'm currently reading a screenplay regarding to Oda Nobunaga.
In one of the character line, it is written that
あなたは死して尚、この僕を囚えようというのですか？
Base on my search, it seems that the kanji 囚 is associated ...
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Why are certain terms sometimes written in hiragana and sometimes in katakana? [duplicate]
I was typing something up and when I went to type apple in Japanese, the Microsoft IME on the computer I was using defaulted to リンゴ in katakana. But from what I remember seeing online and out in the ...
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How would I write this for a graphic design?
I'm a graphic design student and one of my designs is a pink 桃色 rose 薔薇 = (桃色薔薇). I read that Japanese is read right to left and also horizontally?
I want the design's first line to pink and under ...
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Is this translation very loose for the word 生き甲斐?
I'm a fan of the Japanese concept of ikigai and finding my ikigai has been an important and rewarding journey for me and I'd like to get a very simple kanji tattoo of it but I wanted to make sure that ...
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Why are some words (e.g., 処方箋) sometimes partially written with hiragana? [duplicate]
Some words with complex Kanji are sometimes written in a mixture of Hiragana and Kanji. For example 処方箋 (prescription) is often written as 処方せん in pharmacies. This is used by native speakers that have ...
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Allographic Differences of れ
I'm doing some research on Japanese streets for an art project. I've been looking at pictures of streets and trying to figure out what the characters are,
I'm able to find the first two - to and ma, ...
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Why use the kanji 伸 for "no" instead of the hiragana の, and the kanji 手 for "te" instead of the hiragana て?
In an anime opening song, at 0:08, I read the following sentence:
omokage no naka te wo nobasu no
おもかげのなか 手を伸ばすの
Please, can you tell me:
for "no", why is the kanji 伸 used instead of the ...
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How should I write my name with an American first name and Japanese last name?
I generally understand that proper Japanese uses Hiragana and Katakana is for slang/foreign words. Given that, my first name is super American but my last name is Japanese. Would I then make my first ...
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Why are equal signs used to substitute an English hyphen?
I was reading an article about Idlib and the groups that were there on Wikipedia, and hovered to the language setting to gloss at the title translations. For Japanese, I saw something unusual in its ...
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Marking figurative meaning of word
In English figurative meaning of word usually marked with quotation marks like this:
The motherboard is sometimes considered the "brain" of a computer.
I know that in Japanese quotation marks ...
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When a kanji term is listed as outdated, is it for specific words or all of the words that use it?
I read jisho a lot and I run into words with outdated kanji. Does this mean that the kanji term is outdated for a particular word or all words that use it?
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Use of kanji when writing 言う
I've been reading more novels in Japanese recently (かもめ食堂: recommended!), and have noticed that it's unusual for 言う to be written in kanji. Not just in set phrases like という and とはいえ but in ...
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‘から’ と‘ですから’ と、どちらが正しいですか。
例えば、あのレストランは料理も美味しいし、雰囲気もいいから、大人気です。
疑問は以下: このフレーズの中で、どうして“いいから”を使ったんですか。“いいですから”を使うのではないですか。そうだったら、“大人気だ”になりますか。
教えてください。
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What does the へさうな mean in "逢へさうな"
I've come across this phrase (逢へさうな) and don't really understand what's going on grammatically. It's in the context of haiku poetry, I'm assuming the kanji reading is just "a" as in "逢う", but I can't ...
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Is writing the "wa particle" as は a modern convention?
Recently, I was given a copy of Complete Course of Japanese Conversation-Grammar by Oreste and Enko Elisa Vaccari. As it dates back to 1967, I was expecting at least a few things to be a bit old-...
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Attempts to distinguish English "L" and "R" sounds using (extended) katakana
Katakana can represent many foreign sounds that do not exist in native Japanese words, either by using special characters such as ヴ or by using special katakana combinations such as フュ. They are ...
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Can Japanese words with kanji and hiragana in them start with hiragana characters? If so how common are they?
Pretty much every word I've seen so far that contain both kanji and hiragana, always starts with the kanji character(s) first Like 大きい, 見る, 乗り物 and 話す. The only exceptions I've seen so far are お金 and ...
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Is it correct/appropriate to write a word using katakana and hiragana at the same time?
For example:
I noticed what the name of the game Nekopara (ネコぱら) is half-written using katakana(ネコ - neko) and half-written using hiragana(ぱら - para). I'm wondering why so. Сould you explain this to ...
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Is it acceptable to use kanji and hiragana in the same word if a kanji character is unknown?
I have come across this issue a number of times. I am studying Japanese at High School, so I only know about 200 kanji. When I write words that consist of more than two kanji characters, I am unsure ...
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Combination Characters
So I'm in the beginning stages of learning Japanese, and I'm a little lost on combination characters such as kya, sho, ryo, or even the voiced characters such as gya, jo, and byu.
My question is: ...
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How are scientific names (binomial nomenclatures) written in Japan, if they are?
I assume that they would use normal roman letters, but is there a way that scientific names for plants and animals to be written other than the Latin script?
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Why is こおり spelt with an お rather than an う?
I thought that syllables with an "お" sound get lengthened by an "う" rather than another "お".
I've seen this question asked on hinative, which mentions 遠い（とおい）, 大きい (おおきい), 多い (おおい), 通り (とおり/どおり) and ...
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Writing a date range in vertical format
How would one write a range of dates in vertical format? For instance, 2017-18 or 2017-2018.
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Language Encoding difference in Chrome
I'm facing some Language encoding problem in Ubuntu 15.04 Chrome 60.0.3112.90 (Official Build) (64-bit) and I use ibus-anthy as my IME (added as this blog). I have faced similar incidents previously.
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Is this use of 「こみ」 instead of 「ごみ」 in 「ごみ収集ステーション」 accidental or a variation?
In this question on the Travel SE OP is asking about こみ収集ステーション that he has seen, and provided this image of a notice on one of those from Higashidori, Aomori:
The pic is blurry, but not so bad ...
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Is 別れる the intransitive form of 分ける?
I'm studying kanji right know and I found this verb with the kanji 別 and its: わかれる. It is an intransitive verb and it means to be divided. Then I found out that to divide is 分ける but it has a different ...
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Difference between the usage of 君 and キミ
From what I read earlier, 君【きみ】 can be used for "you". But in many instances over the Internet, I have seen キミ being used instead of 君【きみ】. What is the usage difference between the two?
If I ...
user18888
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Is top-to-bottom, left-to-right writing order common in Japanese calligraphy?
My understanding is that Japanese was traditionally written in a top-to-bottom, right-to-left order (縦書き{たてがき}), and that modern Japanese is sometimes written in a horizontal left-to-right, top-to-...
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Usage of Donojiten (々)
Are there any hard-fast rules on when to use or not use the donojiten (々)? I find that it is used for repeating the previous character (e.g. 人々).
Other than helping me distinguish whether a text is ...
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To Kanji or Not To Kanji for うまく・上手く?
I picked up the following phrase to say "I hope you are well":
うまくいきますように!
Looking this up in a dictionary, it seems it could become:
上手く行きますように!
Is this correct, or is it better to leave out ...
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Phonetic Mapping of the Hiragana System Used in the Okinawan Omoro Sōshi
The classical Okinawan poetry collection the Omoro Sōshi is written (mostly) in Hiragana, but the phonetic mapping of the characters to sounds seems to be different to their standard mapping.
For ...
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What are these Okinawan kana-like characters?
I was taking a look at Wikipedia's page on the Ryukyuan languages when I came across the following picture:
The billboard on the left features three kana-like characters that I have never seen before,...
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Why is ふい written in hiragana?
I reckon that ふい is a kango word (不意), but I usually see it written in hiragana, even in print. Neither of the two characters are hard, and if people are typing it shouldn't matter that ふい is easier ...
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Which kanji writing should i follow when writing on paper, digital or non-digital? [closed]
I have came across 必 and wanted to learn how to write it. Though there are major differences between how it looks digitally and how it looks on paper. Here is the link I used : http://jisho.org/search/...