Get Ready So Crazy!

Hello everyone! みんな元気？

So I'm going to make another post about kanji. This time I've put it in FAQ format.

Kanji part two

I realized last post that I didn't get too deep into important stuff about kanji. Like what makes it hard and some things to keep in mind

Why is kanji hard?
I've always had the same theory about kanji. Knowing kanji makes life all the more simple. Studying it is the real bitch. The hardest part about studying kanji is trying to remember all a kanji's readings.

Kanji have more then one reading?
For all intensive purposes lets assume that there are two readings for every kanji. They are "on-yomi" and "kun-yomi" the "on-yomi" is the "sound" reading. When the Japanese first adapted kanji from the Chinese they took some of the pronunciations of some kanji. Characters such as 三 and 字 have the same "on-yomi" reading in Japanese and Chinese. さんand じ Not all kanji are this way. The on-yomi is called The next type is the "kun-yomi" The kun yomi is the meaning reading or the "Japanese Reading" This reading usually stands alone and can mean a word. For example the kanji for car 車 is read as "しゃ" in its Chinese reading. But, しゃby itself doesn't mean anything. For it to be a word it must use it's Japanese reading くるま.

So when do you use the on-yomi?
The on-yomi is usually used in compound words. Example. The word "Train" is a compound kanji word. "でんしゃ" in kanji its read as "電車" meaning "electric car" (keep in mind this was before automobiles in Japan that this word was used) One teacher told me "When reading a compound kanji word treat the second or last kanji as the on-yomi reading" This isn't always true but it occurs quite often.

You said "For all intensive purposes …." What does that mean?
This is where kanji gets complicated. While there are the on yomi and kun yomi not all of these have one way of reading them. Some kanji only have an on-yomi, some only have a kun-yomi, and some have multiple on or kun yomi. For example. The kanji "下" has many different readings. "ka, ge, shita, shin, moto, sage(ge)ru, kuda, oresu, oriru, aka, and shito" For those familiar with internet terms, SAGE uses this kanji. It doesn't end there either. Many times a kanji will have a "voiced" sound that isn't listed as a reading.

Ok, I'm scared. What's a "voiced sound"?
Don't be too scared. LOL a voiced sound is when a kanji is in a compound and its reading is slightly altered. An example is to say sometimes you use 時々 the word is repeated so the sound become "tokidoki" (NOT DOKI DOKI) Other kanji have the same issue not only with repeaters but other sounds. There are no rules for when this will happen so you have to learn as you go. Sometimes ka becomes ga.

You said the word 時々is the same sound repeated why are the kanji different?
々 is a kanji made up by the Japanese. It lets you know that the kanji before it is repeated. It doesn't have a sound on its own. Other examples are 人々 (hito bito)[each person]、日々(hi bi)[each day]、examples where the second sound doesn't change are 年々(nen nen)[year by year]、代々(daidai)[generation after generation]、徐々に(jo jo in)[little by little] and so fourth and so on.

Well I think that's all for now. As always you can e-mail me at summernightbreezer@gmail.com with question

SEE YOU NEXT ROUND!
~Lala~