Kanji Craziness - Page and more

June 15, 2007 on 11:56 pm | In Language | | Email This Post

For all of you studying Japanese, get this.

This is the craziest Kanji I have seen in my entire life.

頁

It’s reading is “Page”. As in Katakana ページ. As in, a book page.

頁数 【ページすう】 (n) number of pages;

Apparently there were a lot of Kanji created for Western things right before World War II.

Similarly we have…

缶 - カン - Can

麦酒 - ビール - Beer

桑港 - サンフランシスコ - San Francisco

硝子 - ガラス - Glass

There are more also. Does anyone know of any they want to share?

- Harvey

Related Posts... (in theory)   Kanji in my Mind    Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary at The Japan Shop    JLPT Kanji Study Help - SpeedAnki.com  

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6 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    There are words like this for countries as well.

    Here’s some:

    亜米利加 - アメリカ - America
    英吉利 - イギリス - England
    露西亜 - ロシア - Russia
    伊太利 - イタリア - Italy
    仏蘭西 - フランス - France
    伯剌西爾 - ブラジル - Brazil
    独逸 - ドイツ - Germany

    Comment by 遠山の金さん — June 16, 2007 #

  2. Gravatar

    How about 粁?
    It stands for kilometer and is read like that (きろめいとる) as well.

    Comment by Tadashi — June 16, 2007 #

  3. Gravatar

    Okay, I knew about the country Kanji, and 印度 for India is one of my favorite. But 粁 【きろめいとる】 kilometer blew my mind. Incredible!

    Comment by harvey — June 16, 2007 #

  4. Gravatar

    Well, there are two related but opposite kinds of words here (known as ateji) One kind is where kanji were assigned to a loan word based on the kanji’s sounds — someone just chose some kanji that could validly be read to sound the same as the loanword. The kanji’s meanings are irrelevant. For example, this is typically the case with country names. Personally, I don’t find this particularly peculiar.
    The other kind is where kanji are assigned according to their meaning, and then given a new reading to match the sound of the loan word (page, beer, kilometre). I guess this kind is somewhat wackier. But on the other hand, I guess in a way it’s more mundane, since presumably this is where all Japanese readings come from, after all.
    I think the element of surprise comes out when the foreign or modern element is obvious. But the process isn’t a new one. Here are two you’re probably familiar with:
    寿司 (sushi) — kanji chosen for their sound
    今朝 (kesa) — kanji chosen for their meaning and given a unique new reading to match the existing Japanese word.
    You know all those words you encounter whose kanji don’t seem to have any relationship to their meaning? They’re likely ateji.

    Comment by bingobangoboy — June 16, 2007 #

  5. Gravatar

    How about these:

    釦（ぼたん）: “botan” for button
    珈琲（こーひー）: “koohii” for coffee

    Comment by thefecklesspunster — June 20, 2007 #

  6. Gravatar

    Wow cool I didn’t know 釦！ It’s cool because the Kanji looks like “gold (metal) mouth”. Heh. Kinda makes sense.

    Comment by harvey — June 20, 2007 #

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