Japanese+Kanji

"Japnese-guide.com." //Kanji//. 5 June 2004. Web. 17 Sep. 2010. . 1. “ The Japanese writing system consists of three different character sets: Kanji (several thousands of Chinese characters) and Hiragana and Katakana (two syllabaries of 46 characters each; together called Kana).” (page 2)

2. “Japanese texts can be written in two ways: In Western style, i.e. in horizontal rows from the top to the bottom of the page, or in traditional Japanese style, i.e. in vertical columns from the right to the left side of the page. Both writing styles exist side by side today.” (page 2)

3. “Basic Japanese grammar is relatively simple. Complicating factors such as gender articles and distinctions between plural and singular are missing almost completely. Conjugation rules for verbs and adjectives are simple and almost free of exceptions. Nouns are not declinated at all, but appear always in the same form.” (page 2)

4. “In comparison with other languages, Japanese knows relatively few sounds, and pronunciation poses little problems to most learners. The biggest difficulty are accents, which do exist, but to a much lower extent than in the Chinese language. In addition, there are relatively many homonyms, i.e. words that are pronounced the same way, but have different meanings.” (page 2)

5. “Different words and expressions are used when talking to an unknown person or a superior, as opposed to when talking to a child, family member or a close friend.” (page 2)

6. “ Kanji are ideograms, i.e. each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word. By combining characters, more words can be created” (page 1)

7. “Kanji, one of the three scripts used in the Japanese language, are Chinese characters, which were first introduced to Japan in the 5th century via Korea.” (page 1)

8. “Around the 9th century, the Japanese developed their own writing system based on syllables: Hiragana and katakana (together: **Kana**). Of the two kana systems, hiragana is more cursive while katakana characters are more angular.” (page 3)

9. “Hiragana and katakana each consist of 46 signs which originally were kanji but were simplified over the centuries. When looking at a Japanese text, one can clearly distinguish the two kinds of signs: the complicated kanji and the simpler kana signs.” (page 3)

10. “In addition, most syllables can be slightly changed by adding two small strokes or a small circle in the top right corner next to the character” (page 3) 11. "Before the introduction of Chinese characters, no Japanese writing system existed. " (page 1) 12. "When adopting the characters, the Japanese did not only introduce the characters' original Chinese pronunciations, but also associated them with the corresponding, native Japanese words and their pronunciations." (page 1) 13. "Consequently, most kanji can still be pronounced in at least two ways, a Chinese (on yomi) and a Japanese (kun yomi) way, which considerably further complicates the study of the Japanese language." (page 1) 14. "Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. But unlike the Chinese language, Japanese cannot be written entirely in kanji." (page 1) 15. "A set of 1945 characters has been officially declared as the "kanji for everyday use". (page 1)