Questions tagged [orthography]
正書法. The standard way of writing the language.
269
questions
12
votes
3
answers
802
views
Why is this katakana not reversed?
Just saw this image about Nintendo on Kotaku:
Clearly the company name, description, and location are written in traditional right-to-left orientation. Even かるた is right-to-left.
So why is トランプ ...
- 43.9k
13
votes
2
answers
17k
views
Dakuten used in non-standard ways (like with vowels)?
Sometimes in manga I encounter dakuten used in unexpected ways. For example, I've seen it used after あ. I wonder what effect it has on the pronunciation. Does it basically mean that the voice is ...
- 2,715
1
vote
2
answers
17k
views
How do I say "cat"? And do I use kanji, hiragana, katakana or rōmaji?
猫, ねこ, ネコ, neko
Which of these means "cat"? Is it all of them?
Which situation do I use each of these in?
- 103
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Japanese words with を in shiritori?
I've been playing some しりとり recently at http://www.shiritori.org/ and was wondering why no words with を show up.
siritori.net suggests there are quite a few nouns starting with を:
を
をかし
...
- 2,686
3
votes
1
answer
232
views
Comma between adjectives?
Is it okay to separate adjectives with a comma? Since my sentence has three adjectives, I added them just like how we would in English to separate a list containing three or more items (no comma if ...
- 1,229
-2
votes
1
answer
374
views
Why does Japanese lack word wrapping? [closed]
Why does Japanese (more or less) lack word wrapping, with even words written in katakana broken up by new lines?
- 16.2k
4
votes
1
answer
182
views
覚せい剤 - why is it written with kana?
Why is 覚せい剤 a common variant writing of 覚醒剤? 醒 is a Joyo kanji and wouldn't pose any recognition problems.
Example:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/覚せい剤取締法
- 2,402
5
votes
1
answer
911
views
Are Japanese speakers likely to confuse "message" and "massage" in English?
I've occasionally noticed native speakers of Japanese using "massage" when they mean "message", but I can't recall native speakers of other languages mistaking the two. As far as I know, both "massage"...
- 16.2k
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is there any way to input hentaigana into text documents?
Having found some books that use hentaigana (e.g. the 古今琉歌集) alongside standard hiragana and kanji, I've been trying to find a way to input hentaigana characters into text files.
I've found proposed ...
- 438
7
votes
1
answer
997
views
What do you need kanatype sensitivity for?
Question to any Japanese reader:
When you look in SQL-Server and do
SELECT * FROM sys.fn_helpcollations()
WHERE (1=1)
--AND description LIKE '%insensitive%'
AND name LIKE '%japanese%'
you get ...
- 171
15
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How has Japanese kanji and kana usage changed since 1945?
How has the percentage of writing using each script changed since 1945? With script reform, increasing influx of loanwords, and stylistic choices, several factors affect how much certain parts of the ...
- 3,343
11
votes
1
answer
423
views
How can one stop "去年【きょねん】教職【きょうしょく】" from looking like a weird 4 kanji compound?
In writing, sometimes you get the illusion of a 4-character compound:
Xさんは去年教職を退【しりぞ】いた。
This bothers some non-natives. To correct the "problem", can I always just place a comma between the kanjis ...
- 1,559
1
vote
1
answer
216
views
Why would the Japanese transliteration from Greek Χριστος be spelled as ハリストス instead of キリストス?
Although it's not as common as キリスト, ハリストス is seen in the name of Japan's Orthodox Church. But why ハリストス if the pronounce of the Greek Χριστος is khristós (with a clear kri sound)? There is キリストス too, ...
- 615
12
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Spaces in children's books
Written Japanese ordinarily doesn't use any spaces to separate words. But Japanese children's books do.
For example, the opening of Tomi Ungerer's The Three Robbers (すてきな 三にんぐみ)
あらわれでたのは、
くろマントに、 くろい ...
- 48k
4
votes
2
answers
577
views
The Kanji for ありがとうございます
有難う御座います is one Kanji spelling. However, I thought, 'is ございます here an auxilliary verb, and thus are the Kanji incorrect?' Should the proper spelling be 有難うございます?
- 11.2k
3
votes
2
answers
449
views
Difference between 交替 and 交代
Is there any difference between 交替 and 交代 or are they completely interchangeable?
- 207
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What phonetic shorthands (like 〼, 〆) are there in Japanese?
I recently learned that the symbol 〼, called 枡記号【ますきごう】, can be used as a phonetic shorthand for ます, as in 豆腐あり[〼]【ます】. In a similar vein, I am aware that 〆 is used as a shorthand for しめ in 〆切【しめきり】 = ...
- 5,645
5
votes
1
answer
670
views
How common is the practice of writing わたし in kana and わたくし in kanji?
I've heard that some people only write わたし in kana and only use the Kanji 私 when the intended reading is わたくし. How common is this practice? Is it old-fashioned? If I used it myself as a foreigner, ...
- 11.2k
4
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Are ミツバチ and イルカ more frequently written in katakana?
I was looking through a list of words that normally are written in kana, instead of their kanji. Two caught my attention because the list has them written in katakana, instead of hiragana. But, as ...
- 637
8
votes
1
answer
590
views
Why is hiragana used in the middle of this compound word? (障害者 vs 障がい者)
I saw this article on Gizmodo Japan:
だれもがスマホの便利さを享受できる第一歩。視覚障がい者がiPhone操作を学べるアプリ
Obviously, this is 視覚障害者 (or possibly, 視覚障碍者). It is in the title of the article, as well as several places within ...
- 43.9k
3
votes
3
answers
183
views
If 結婚 is written as 結{けっ}婚{こん} rather than 結{け}っ婚{こん}, why do we write 持{も}って rather than 持{もっ}て?
My question is:
If 結婚 is written as 結{けっ}婚{こん} rather than 結{け}っ婚{こん}, why do we write 持{も}って rather than 持{もっ}て?
- 2,443
1
vote
1
answer
184
views
Classical form of 落{お}ちる
I read in a haiku written by Bashō/芭蕉 (source - see my addendum at the end of the post) :
をちこちに
瀧{たき}の音{おと}聞く{きく}
落{おち}葉{ば}かな
My translation :
From far and near, hearing the sounds of the waterfall(...
- 673
1
vote
2
answers
606
views
Mixture of romaji and hiragana in NHK "Meet and Speak"
In the NHK program "Meet and Speak", the phrases they use have a mixture of hiragana and romaji. Not as in hiragana on one line, and romaji underneath, but individual words being composed of the two, ...
- 16.2k
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Difference between んい and に
I noticed that the word 単位 is written as たんい in hiragana, not たに. Is there a difference in the way んい and に are pronounced? If so, does the same principle go for んあ and な, んえ and ね, etc.?
- 43
1
vote
1
answer
3k
views
Understanding hiragana-only texts in videogames
I've been reading since a long time ago that reading hiragana only texts is quite difficult or frustrating because you don't know where a word begins or ends, I understand that and the importance of ...
- 21
4
votes
1
answer
727
views
Why was "アオ" used instead of ”あお”?
I was reading a picture book, and there was this sentence:
アオくて ちいさな ぼくのイス。
Why is "ao" and "isu" written in katakana and not hiragana?
- 53
0
votes
0
answers
374
views
What do dots next to Hiragana mean in literature? [duplicate]
I've been reading more Japanese literature, and in doing so I've come across hiragana with something that looks like 、to the right of some characters where ふりがな would be (keeping in mind that Japanese ...
- 3,343
4
votes
3
answers
336
views
Standard for writing/pronouncing loanwords: ウインドー v.s. ウィンドウ, etc
In スーパー大辞林 I found:
ウインドー [0] 〖window〗 (1)窓｡ (2)ショー-ウインドーの略｡陳列窓｡
(3)コンピューターのディスプレー画面上で情報の表示されている部分｡画面をいくつかの部分に分割し,それぞれに異なった情報を表示する方式をマルチ-ウインドーという｡
In Wikipedia I found:
Microsoft Windows（...
- 1,611
0
votes
1
answer
169
views
Is this a different accent than Tokyo's?
A friend of mine wrote：
誘えていないんだ。
But aparently it should be written as:
誘いていないんか。
I think this is not a typo because he wrote two different sentences, both with え instead of い. Is this ...
- 511
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How do you indicate line breaks in a poem when it is written without actual line breaks?
In English, if you have a poem, like
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet,
And so are you.
and you need to write it on just one line (for reasons of space or whatever), you would ...
- 5,645
1
vote
0
answers
58
views
Are you allowed to continue words on the next line? [duplicate]
I would imagine this would make reading harder, but is it allowed to finish a word on the next line if you run out of room? Does it not matter?
。。。。お姉さんはとて
も楽しです！
- 53
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
When writing by hand, can kana be half-width and kanji be full-width?
Simply I find when I'm writing I can only make kanji so small before they become sloppy, but I can write kana nice and small. Is it allowed to write half-width Katakana/Hiragana alongside regular ...
- 53
17
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Can I insert hiragana in words I only know partially how to write?
This is a problem I encountered today. I had no idea how to decide what was the best course of action, and I only got the advice of a classmate (You're doing it WRONG) to confirm.
As I am still ...
- 2,736
-1
votes
1
answer
143
views
What is this character? [closed]
I was reading a book and I couldn't figure out what character this is:
What is this character?
- 145
2
votes
1
answer
288
views
What is the difference between 目を細める and 眼を細める
Example:
「できるのか？」【大男】
大男が眼を細めてくる
The definition for the first expression as given from weblio is
目の開き方を小さくする。
うれしそうにほほえみをうかべる
Is the reason that this line uses 眼 instead of 目 to ...
- 257
7
votes
2
answers
509
views
When was 歴史的仮名遣い standardized?
Enno Shioji's answer to my question about 直音表記 says (emphasis added) that:
Historically there were multiple way to write a word, and this wasn't standardized. For example, some very old documents ...
- 5,645
7
votes
1
answer
767
views
What do you do if a genkoyoshi line ends with e.g. す。」?
Suppose that you're writing on genkoyoshi (原稿用紙), and you are writing a quotation, e.g.
「これはペンです。」
And let's say that each line of the genkoyoshi has 8 blocks. The first block would, I presume, ...
- 5,645
26
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Is there a reason why numbers in Japanese are delimited into blocks of four?
As I understand, Japanese numbers are divided into blocks of four, so while we would think of the number 89123889 as 89,123,889, in Japan they would think of it as 8912,3889 (八千九百十二万三千八百八十九). So ...
- 2,751
4
votes
1
answer
739
views
Is しゃぶしゃぶ typically written in hiragana rather than katakana?
Is しゃぶしゃぶ typically written in hiragana rather than katakana? If so, why is it written in hiragana?
Wikipedia says that it is onomatopoeia:
The term is an onomatopoeia, derived from the sound ...
- 16.2k
11
votes
3
answers
9k
views
How would one emulate capitalized letters in Japanese?
Capitalized letters look like I'M SHOUTING AT YOU.
How would you reproduce this effect in Japanese?
I don't think any of the obvious choices,
using カタカナ instead of 漢字 or ひらがな,
using punctuation, e....
- 48k
1
vote
1
answer
854
views
Intuitive or logical way to know when to use a kanji spelling vs hiragana spelling?
A recurring theme on this site is that foreign learners of Japanese use too much kanji. Often the reaction is puzzlement that we can't "just know the right way". Native speakers literally say they don'...
- 15.2k
5
votes
1
answer
854
views
How to know when I should use katakana form words referring to animals, lesser creatures, or other organisms?
I know many words for animals are usually written in katakana in contemporary Japanese, even though kanji exist:
イルカ
クマ
And it seems some very common domestic animals I don't seem to notice written ...
- 15.2k
1
vote
2
answers
192
views
穿る vs ほじる vs ほじくる
In wondering how to expressing the act of picking one's nose in Japanese I came across the following term or terms:
穿る / ほじる / ほじくる
I got the feeling from WWWJDIC that the two hiragana are ...
- 15.2k
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
Is there a "right" or "best" way to write this Okinawan expression for "cheers"?
When I was still in Okinawa I learned how to say "cheers" / "乾杯{かんぱい}".
You can either say just karii or you can use the extended version I pefer karii sabira.
My question is how to write it? I have ...
- 15.2k
6
votes
1
answer
368
views
What does it mean to write wasei-eigo and gairaigo in Romaji?
Wasei-eigo and most Gairaigo (especially in a text or sentence as opposed to being by itself) is usually written in Katakana (イメージ, ジュース, スマート,パンツ,アベック). However, there are times that have seen some ...
- 617
4
votes
1
answer
259
views
Are 万葉仮名 (man'yōgana) chosen consistently?
This answer got me wondering how relevant the presentation in 万葉仮名 is to finding a 漢字 for a given word.
As far as I understand, 万葉仮名 are used largely for phonetic value. Knowing that some word was ...
- 48k
30
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Why are points used where furigana would be normally?
Sometimes in mangas there are points where you would expect normally furigana. What meaning is it supposed to have?
- 415
4
votes
1
answer
414
views
even on 常用漢字表{じょうようかんじひょう}, no kanji have an official 送{おく}り仮名{がな}?
Recently, I was talking with a friend regarding the 常用漢字表 as specified here I noticed that the 送り仮名 property of kanjis is not specified. She was a little puzzled, but concluded that the 文部省{もんぶしょう} ...
- 2,282
16
votes
7
answers
6k
views
Are there words which consist of katakana and hiragana letters together?
Obviously many Japanese words consist of kanji characters plus hiragana since the latter are used for okurigana:
食べる
水割り
鷹の爪
Recently I'v started to discover a few words that use kanji characters ...
- 15.2k
19
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Are there general rules on when to use kanji vs. kana?
This post is inspired by Tokyo Nagoya's comment in できる vs ~えます form for “can”, “able to” asking why everyone was writing 出来る in kanji in their responses.
As I mentioned in my reply to his comment, I ...
- 5,180