Quote:
Originally Posted by Noka
I don't understand how the whole kanji thing works... so I need a quick explanation or reassurance.
Like 'kuuki' (空気) for example.
I understand why the second kanji is there since it means 'mood.' But.. why is that first one there? Is all kanji written in resemblance to the Japanese word? I wouldn't know since I don't know what the first kanji means yet. X3 *learning her kanji from MyJapaneseCoach DS)
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Well crap. I had a very long, detailed explanation here but my browser crashed and I lost the entire thing and I don't have time to write it all again. Sorry.
However, Noka, being a native English speaker, you are already familiar with how Kanji work: Greek prefixes and suffixes.
No doubt you've seen words like "dinosaur" or "platypus" or "arachnophobia" or "democracy." Let me point out how these words work:
dinosaur = dino (terrible) + saurus (lizard) = terrible lizard
platypus = platys (flat) + pous (foot) = flat foot (duckbilled platypus has flat feet)
arachnophobia = arachno (spider) + phobos (fear) = fear of spiders
democracy = demos (people) + kratos (rule) = ruling by the people
See how it works? In English, we take Greek roots and combine them to make new English words. In the same way, most of the time you encounter multiple kanji together as one word, it will be in this same way: to take multiple Chinese characters (kanji) and make a new Japanese word (or borrow a Chinese word).
There are a few special differences, though:
1. pronunciation changes more drastically in the Japanese example than English example. For example, 分 is "wa" by itself but becomes "bun" in combination with others.
2. Not all the time does pronunciation when combined with kanji change (there are hintsin teh word, though, to clue you in). FOr example, in 使い分け, the 分 remains "wa" even though it's combined in a new word. The clue is that there are hiragana in the word, too. However, if you happen to see 自分, you can almost safely assume that it will have the "new" pronunciation of "bun" there with it.
3. There is a concept called "ateji," where kanji are used not for meaning but just for sound. A famous ateji is 寿司 (sushi), where neither kanji has any meaning related to food at all (life span + administration).
Don't worry about #3 at all for now, and you'll come to understand #1 and #2 more as you study. You don't need to know all this now to become a successful speaker. This is just an introduction so you can see how very fascinating this all is.
Plus, I think understanding that seemingly weird practices in one language also occur in your own language helps with learning. Here, the kanji don't seem so scary if your recognize that English already does something similar.
Note for advanced speakers and natives: Yes, I do recognize that kanji and my Greek example are in no way a perfect analogy.
