Difference between two kanji

[lucagalbu]

Hi there!
I was looking for the kanji for river... I knew it is 川. But now I came across this one: 河. Is there any difference?

[burkhartdesu]

This is just my guess but maybe that Kanji is more prominent in Chinese and the Kanji for kawa 川 is more Japanese?

[KyleGoetz]

I made reference to my 新漢英字典, and it gives a usage note that, in regards to river names, 川 is a suffix particularly for Japanese rivers, whereas 河 is used more for non-Japanese rivers.

For example, アマゾン河 (Amazon River, in S. America) vs. 江戸川 (Edo River, in Kanto).

There were also many words that use one or the other. Presumably, these are fixed usages.

I'm thinking of this dichotomy like that of 聴く・聞く, where the meaning is slightly different, but no one's going to kill you for the ever-so-slight mistake. A Japanese person want to chime in on this?

[kirakira]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

I made reference to my 新漢英字典, and it gives a usage note that, in regards to river names, 川 is a suffix particularly for Japanese rivers, whereas 河 is used more for non-Japanese rivers.

For example, アマゾン河 (Amazon River, in S. America) vs. 江戸川 (Edo River, in Kanto).

You are right. 河 is to refer to big rivers overseas except for China and Korea where fixed names are used such as 揚子江 and 清渓川。

However, unless you know what you are doing, 川 is the most commonly used character to refer to a river.

[lucagalbu]

thank you!