81
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If Kanji are necessary to disambiguate homophones, how come it's still used, being that Japanese people seem to know the difference when speaking?
Kanji aren't necessary to write Japanese
Your rationale is correct; Japanese is a living, spoken language; people are able to understand each other by sound only, therefore a writing system based on ...
- 5,409
42
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Is [mathematical] 'analysis' in Japanese the same word as 'fine cuisine' in Japanese?
No. Japanese "haute cuisine" is called 懐石(料理). Mathematical analysis is 解析(学). What is true is that 懐石 and 解析 are homophones, both pronounced かいせき and, in context, both may be referred to as かいせき. ...
- 48k
24
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Why are there many kanji that are read and mean the same?
The very answer to your question is why I like Japanese so much. As you noticed a same word can be written with different kanji: that is not limited to verbs. If kanji changes meaning changes too (...
- 7,033
24
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If Kanji are necessary to disambiguate homophones, how come it's still used, being that Japanese people seem to know the difference when speaking?
This is definitely a bit harder for native English speakers to pick up on at first, but sometimes homophones in Japanese are distinguishable by the pitch accent. So some of them aren't an issue at all....
- 2,359
23
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Is [mathematical] 'analysis' in Japanese the same word as 'fine cuisine' in Japanese?
While the pronunciation is the same, the words' etymologies are unrelated.
Mathematical analysis is 解析(kaiseki かいせき) while (Japanese) fine cuisine is 懐石(kaiseki かいせき).
Both 解 and 析 roughly ...
- 15.6k
12
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Differences between the various readings of 描く and 画く
I think this is actually a place where the Chinese-imported kanji obscure the usage of native Japanese words.
Etymology
The etymology of all these words (and 書く) is the same 和語 of かく, which has the ...
12
votes
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How to properly use とまる/とめる/やむ/やめる/とどまる/とどめる/よす/さす
Broadly speaking, the words can be broken up as follows:
止まる{とまる} and 止める{とめる}
止む{やむ} and 止める{やめる}
止まる{とどまる} and 止める{とどめる}
Exceptions: 止す{よす} and 止す{さす}
The first three groups are made up of pairs ...
- 1,788
11
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Why are there many kanji that are read and mean the same?
Japanese didn't have any original letters in ancient times. Kanji was brought into Japan from China in the 3rd or 4th century.
When old Japanese people adopted kanji, they called each letter as ...
- 2,155
10
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Confused in choosing 早い versus 速い
Your understanding is correct. 速い refers to one's speed and 早い refers to time. However, 早い has more uses than just meaning early. Check:
How to distinguish between the meanings of "quickly", ...
- 708
9
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When to use 云う vs 言う?
Broadly speaking, 云う seems to be somewhat more old-fashioned in use. It appears with some frequency in Natsume Soseki's works, but not so much in recent publications, which use 言う instead.
The ...
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8
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What is the difference between 飲む and 呑む?
Maybe you know that to say "to take a pill" in Japanese you would say 丸薬をのむ. (I did not put the kanji of のむ intentionally).
飲む is used to say to drink. I mean, to absorb a liquid through your mouth ...
- 7,033
7
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What is the difference between the pronunciation of 「休校【きゅうこう】」and「急行【きゅうこう】」?
Both words have the same reading and pitch accent, so there wouldn't be a difference in pronunciation.
- 3,084
7
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Does “Tekken” sound like “iron sword” to someone unfamiliar with the franchise?
There is no difference in pitch accent between 鉄拳 and 鉄剣, so it purely depends on which word is more familiar to laypeople. Neither is particularly common in daily life, but IMO 鉄拳 is a little bit ...
- 306k
6
votes
Accepted
Why write「もの」instead of 「物」 or 「者」?
According to Alexander Wurdow (a kind of notable author in Russia), "者/物 usually plays an auxiliary role (nominalization), and therefore most of the time it is written in kana". Does that make any ...
- 2,715
6
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If Kanji are necessary to disambiguate homophones, how come it's still used, being that Japanese people seem to know the difference when speaking?
Thinking briefly, I think that there is no problem even if we have no kanji in Japanese to disambiguate homophones or homonyms as OP thinks , but in fact we need kanji.
In conversation, not in ...
- 15.3k
6
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If Kanji are necessary to disambiguate homophones, how come it's still used, being that Japanese people seem to know the difference when speaking?
Most everyone's answers are correct, but I wanted to bring up one useful aspect of kanji which I don't think has been brought up. It may be limited to learners like me, but many times when I encounter ...
- 211
6
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Specific examples of tonal Chinese words rendered into Japanese
Keywords: MC, Middle Chinese; OC, Old Chinese: MJ: Middle Japanese; OJ,
Old Japanese; 呉, Go'on; 漢, Kan'on; 唐, Tō-on; /(absence of superscript)/ or 平, level tone; /X/ or 上, rising tone; /H/ or 去, ...
- 9,075
6
votes
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Is there a fundamental difference between homonyms with close meaning and words with multiple possible kanji?
The short answer is no. The semantic "distance" between two homophones is determined at the discretion of the authors of each dictionary, and it is impossible to draw an official line. Some ...
- 306k
5
votes
Accepted
Which of these means affection 愛情, 愛 or 情?
愛 is the "concept" of love. 愛情 is the physical emotion that humans feel. 「情」 be can added to other things in a similar way:
[感情]{かんじょう} Emotion(s)
[友情]{ゆうじょう} Friendship
[情熱]{じょうねつ} Passion ...
- 460
5
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Why are there many kanji that are read and mean the same?
The other answers address the differences between the kanji choices. I would like to point out that this information for disambiguation is contained in any good monolingual dictionary, e.g. 大辞林 which ...
- 48k
5
votes
Specific examples of tonal Chinese words rendered into Japanese
The most homophones that I know of are the various words pronounced きかん (ordered by frequency in Japanese)
機関 jīguān 機關・机关 engine/institution
期間 qījiān 期间 time interval/period
器官 qìguān organ
...
- 48k
4
votes
Most egregious examples of the reading of a kanji changing due to (textually) distant characters
[大人気]{おとなげ}ない。
[大人気]{だいにんき}である。
4
votes
What's the difference between "家" (ya), "屋" (ya), and "や" (ya) as used in the names of shops/stores/restaurants?
-屋{や} is also used in some words describing character traits, e.g.
恥{は}ずかしがり屋{や} (bashful person)
寂{さび}しがり屋{や} (lonely person)
寒{さむ}がり屋{や} (someone who gets cold easily, cold-blooded)
くすぐったがり屋{や} (...
- 6,573
4
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Accepted
Is there a radiotelephony alphabet standard for kanji, similar to NATO phonetic alphabet ("alfa, bravo, charlie")?
I doubt there is an official method or list of words used to explain kanji.
If there were an official method that were a lot more efficient, then regular people would probably be using it and nobody ...
- 8,045
4
votes
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Academic/historic attempts to create an alternative writing system similar to Hangul?
You said "hiragana and katakana do not exactly match the phonetic structure of the language," but that's not true. The Japanese language is mora-based, and only trained people who study foreign ...
- 306k
4
votes
Accepted
Is the couple 解ける / 溶ける related to the English solve/ dissolve?
I think the pair 解ける 溶ける was probably not influenced by the English language.
Rather, it is more likely a standard example of the very common phenomenon of a (native Japanese) verb being written with ...
- 48k
4
votes
Does “Tekken” sound like “iron sword” to someone unfamiliar with the franchise?
It's related to rather contexts than phonology. Other than the lecture of Japanese history, one normally associates "Tekken" with 鉄拳{てっけん}. I do not think one can associate "Tekken"...
- 5,588
4
votes
Accepted
Why do authors choose to use obscure/old ways to write words?
There is a nuance between them which only experienced readers can feel. 莫迦 looks more literary, elevated, fancy or poetic than 馬鹿, and readers will eventually develop such a sense after reading many ...
- 306k
4
votes
How should I read 購売部?
It is こうばいぶ. Apparently 購買部 is the correct one, literally meaning "buying department".
According to this chiebukuro answer, since 購 means "to buy", 購買 is the only possibility and ...
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