Kanji

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The kanji for the word "kanji".

Kanji is one of the three forms of Japanese writing. It is taken and changed from Chinese characters. A kanji is an ideogram: that is, a symbol of an idea or concept, such as an object, thing or quality. All Kanji have a Hiragana or Katakana (the two other forms of Japanese writing, they are combined and called Kana) spelling. In the Japanese language, words can have more than one meaning, and when the words are written, a reader may become unsure of what the meaning is, so each different Kanji can be said the same yet look different and have a different meaning. It literally means "Han characters".

Kanji was originally written to look like what it means, thus the Japanese symbol for mouth is 口 (which is said as "goot-chi"), and looks like a mouth. Another word, 山 (said as "ya-mah") means mountain. The Japanese have Kanji for many words, most can be shown with just one Kanji, but sometimes, some Kana are added onto the end of the word to change it's meaning and add to the way it's said. The kanji can also be combined to create new words, such as 山口 (yamaguchi), "mountain-mouth", meaning a cave. (That is also the surname of Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi).

Often the kanji are read differently when they appear alone and when they form a compound word. Most kanji have at least two different readings, kun-yomi, which is the original Japanese reading, and on-yomi, which is Chinese reading. Kun-yomi is usually used when the kanji is alone, and on-yomi when it is part of a compound. For example, 山 can be read either as "yama" (kun-yomi) or "san" (on-yomi).

As English only has one writing system, Japanese and Kanji are taught differently through schools. Kanji is shown to the students in each grade, as the characters get progressively harder. If someone does not know the Kanji for a word, they will write it in Kana. The kanji are classed on basis of how many brush strokes they are made of. The simplest kanji have one stroke and the most complex may have up to 23 strokes.

There are many different Kanji, the exact number is not known but it is around 50,000. However, all 50,000 are not taught in schools. The government of Japan has set up a 1945 basic Kanji list that those learning the language may want to know. They are the most common used in newspapers and magazines, along with street signs and store signs.