Japanese writing systems
I wanted to share with everyone things I've learned this week :)
I really love learning new facts, new stories and gain more knowledge, especially when it's about something interesting such as the cultures of the far east:) In a forum I'm a member in, which is about asian dramas, we try sometimes to learn about those countries we've been encountering through the dramas. Some girls (who especially watch japanese dramas) made a weekly game in which the other forum members has to answer some questions. This week it was about the Japanese writing sets, and I, as almost always, searched about this, summarized, and here are my findings:
Japanese writing system has 3 main scripts:
Kanji (漢字) are the chinese characters which are used in japanese writing. The meaning of the name "Kanji" is "Han Characters", it is to say that the chinese characters entered Japan in the period of Han dynasty in china.
"Chinese characters first came to Japan on articles imported from China. An early instance of such an import was a gold seal given by the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty in 57 AD".
"The Japanese language itself had no written form at the time kanji was introduced. Originally texts were written in the Chinese language and would have been read as such. Over time, however, a system known as kanbun(漢文) emerged, which involved using Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to restructure and read Chinese sentences, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar".
A writing system called Manyogana(万葉仮名) has developed, which contained simplification of Chinese characters which only their sound was used and not the meaning. From the Manyogana there were developed the Hiragana and Katagana.
Most of the Kanji's characters are similar to the Chinese characters, but there are Kanji characters which are particular Kanji and are not existed in the Chinese writing system. Actually, whereas the Chinese characters had passed simplification, the Japanese use the Chinese characters from the 6th century. LOL.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji
Hiragana(ひらがな) had been developed from the Manyogana during the 5th century. The Japanese used Manyogana for literature, and the more they used it, it had been elaborated until it got a convenient form for fast writing, this is the Hiragana. The scholars still insisted on using the Chinese characters, and thus, because of its simplicity, the women who weren't allowed to get education, could use the Hiragana. "Major works of Heian era literature by women were written in hiragana".
As time passed people used Hiragana to write personal letters, while Kanji and Katagana were used to write formal documents.
During the 20th century the value of Hiragana raised, and is used in combination with Kanji, while Katagana is used to transcript foreign words into Japanese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana
Katagana(カタカナ)
"Unlike the hiragana system which is used for Japanese language words for which kanji does not cover, the katakana syllabary is primarily used for transcription of foreign language words into Japanese".
But as the Hiragana, the Katagana is being used in order to write words originally japanese.
The Katagana had developed from the Manyogana, when monastery students simplified it into a simpler version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana