it's funny that japanese stole all the chinese characters, so i can read the names of the languages in 中文 (or 漢語)...though "語" is less common than "文" to mean language (for example, the japanese language is "日文" while the adj is (i think) "日本")
日本 just means Japan for us. I've never seen that 漢字(kanji) used for language.
As for pronunciations, I think we may have bummed a few from Chinese too... My freshman year, we learned the 漢字 and every possible pronunciation for them (usually one Japanese pronunciation, one Chinese), but this year we just learn them in the context of the words they are in, without knowing the origin. Also, I love learning what each one is supposed to look like. It's really funny sometimes.
actually it's hanzi--"zi" being character, and "han" meaning "chinese" pretty much--as in "Han Chinese" :P
riben also means japan. it can just mean japanese as well.
also, apparently y'all got the pronunciations mostly from the tang dynasty, and modern chinese has evolved away from that, while japanese pronunciations are closer to it.
I love our languages. I could sit around and talk about their differences all day. Well, for a long time anyway...
Also, I must confess: I forgot what day your birthday was :(
Brigid called me yesterday asking, and I thought it was March 6, but she informed me that it was in fact March 8. Either way, a very happy belated birthday to you, and expect a call sometime soon ^_^"
umm...so i guess my computer doesn't have that language or whatever because all those symbols look like little boxes, the same little box. Oh well...lol!
Yeah, I realized after posting this that a bunch of people probably wouldn't have East Asian language support installed on their computers. Luckily, I put the English in there too, otherwise you would be completely confused.
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we pronounce everything differently though. obv.
yayyyyyy
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As for pronunciations, I think we may have bummed a few from Chinese too... My freshman year, we learned the 漢字 and every possible pronunciation for them (usually one Japanese pronunciation, one Chinese), but this year we just learn them in the context of the words they are in, without knowing the origin. Also, I love learning what each one is supposed to look like. It's really funny sometimes.
Whee ^_^ ♥
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riben also means japan. it can just mean japanese as well.
also, apparently y'all got the pronunciations mostly from the tang dynasty, and modern chinese has evolved away from that, while japanese pronunciations are closer to it.
but i'm not sure.
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Also, I must confess: I forgot what day your birthday was :(
Brigid called me yesterday asking, and I thought it was March 6, but she informed me that it was in fact March 8. Either way, a very happy belated birthday to you, and expect a call sometime soon ^_^"
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