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komitsuki (Offline)
Busier Than Shinjuku Station
 
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Join Date: Feb 2009
07-28-2009, 12:12 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by jesselt View Post
No one would ever come to the conclusion that 人口 would mean population if you told them that the first Kanji means person and the second means Mouth. Never.
It makes sense if you associate 口 with its "modern" secondary meaning: an entity that an object would enter.

This is Chinese characters. Most of them have a primary meaning and bunch of secondary meanings.


JapanForum's semi-resident amateur linguist.
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