What is the Difference of these 3?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by jrocka83

Hirigana was devoloped for woman back in the day. Woman in Japan where not allowed to write in kanji. But now Hirigana is use for some adjetives like Oishii{Tasty} お(O)い(I)し(SHI)い(I) And is also used for particles like waは and gaが.

That`s not quite right. Hiragana was developed as an improved way of writing, as prior to that sounds in Japanese were simply assigned to specific Kanji, making writing a single word quite a task. The Hiragana were simplified versions of the Kanji. They weren`t designed for women at all, but to be an easier and faster way to write - a sort of shorthand, really - to be used as a replacement for the former writing system. They caught on with women first, who often didn`t have access to the same levels of education as men so found the simplified versions easier to remember and more familiar. It took longer for them to gain wide popularity because most people didn`t want to switch over from the writing style they knew to one that looked so simple. Plus, older texts and books were all written in the older style, so it was still necessary to study it. For women who weren`t studying them in the first place, that wasn`t an issue. They did however often study classical Chinese cursive script as an art, and Hiragana was derived from this.

The average Japanese person knows about 40,000 charecters, that is how much you need to know to read the news paper in Japan.

Umm, last time I checked the newspaper was limited to about 2000 (the Joyo and a few specialty characters). Trust me, there is no way an average Japanese person knows anywhere close to 40,000. Even if you include all the specialized name Kanji, you still don`t even hit 3000. The 40,000 sounds a lot more like Chinese.

[GoodAnime]

@MMM & jrocka83: Thank you to you both!

Another thing (So sorry for the many questions I have). With the katakana, hiragana (and kanji?), if I put one character with another by the sound they make, it creates words? I.E. - The character for 'na' (I'm talking about hiragana now) + 'ni' = What? (I would type in the characters, but I don't know how, lol) x]

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by GoodAnime

@MMM & jrocka83: Thank you to you both!

Another thing (So sorry for the many questions I have). With the katakana, hiragana (and kanji?), if I put one character with another by the sound they make, it creates words? I.E. - The character for 'na' (I'm talking about hiragana now) + 'ni' = What?

If the characters are of the same set, they can be read as a word. One Kanji exists for nani - but you can also write it out phonetically in Hiragana as na+ni and it will have the same meaning. You can do the same in Katakana and it will still carry the same meaning, but look a bit odd as Katakana usually isn`t used for that purpose.

I think it`s best to look at how kids in Japan learn written Japanese. They start with all Hiragana, writing things out completely phonetically. As they learn Katakana and Kanji, they substitute them in the correct places.

[GoodAnime]

@Nyororin: Ahh, okay.

I think that's all the questions I have for today. Thank you to everyone who replied!! I have one more question, but I can probably find out on my own from studying the three types of characters. . . Thank you again!

[Hatredcopter]

Originally Posted by jrocka83

There are over 150,000 cheracters in the kanji alphebet.

Where'd ya get that number from? Even for Chinese, that's far-fetched. There are indeed tens of thousands of Kanji in Japanese, but the vast majority of them are archaic or obscure and never used in regular speech or writing. As Nyororin mentioned, the number of Kanji needed for literacy is about 2000. This is what the JLPT Level 1 tests for. These Kanji are defined by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and it's what all schoolchildren in Japan learn all the way from first grade to the end of high school.

[jrocka83]

Originally Posted by Hatredcopter

Where'd ya get that number from? Even for Chinese, that's far-fetched. There are indeed tens of thousands of Kanji in Japanese, but the vast majority of them are archaic or obscure and never used in regular speech or writing. As Nyororin mentioned, the number of Kanji needed for literacy is about 2000. This is what the JLPT Level 1 tests for. These Kanji are defined by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and it's what all schoolchildren in Japan learn all the way from first grade to the end of high school.

The number of possible characters is disputed. The "Daikanwa Jiten" contains about 50,000 characters, and this was thought to be comprehensive, but more recent mainland Chinese dictionaries contain 80,000 or more characters, many consisting of obscure variants. Most of these are not in common use in either Japan or China. So 130,000 Charecters..

I'm sorry, I was off by 20,000. My bad .

[MMM]

I don't think the number of possible characters is the issue, but the practical number of kanji actually used.

[Hatredcopter]

The Wikipedia article you quoted from doesn't say 80,000 more than the Daikanwa dictionary. It just says 80,000+ characters, in comparison to the 50,000 character Daikanwa. It's unreasonable to say any characters beyond the Daikanwa dictionary are Kanji, since they're only used in China. I can't imagine they were even given a proper Japanese pronunciation in the same way that they did with the other Sino-Japanese borrowings.

[jrocka83]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

That`s not quite right. Hiragana was developed as an improved way of writing, as prior to that sounds in Japanese were simply assigned to specific Kanji, making writing a single word quite a task. The Hiragana were simplified versions of the Kanji. They weren`t designed for women at all, but to be an easier and faster way to write - a sort of shorthand, really - to be used as a replacement for the former writing system. They caught on with women first, who often didn`t have access to the same levels of education as men so found the simplified versions easier to remember and more familiar. It took longer for them to gain wide popularity because most people didn`t want to switch over from the writing style they knew to one that looked so simple. Plus, older texts and books were all written in the older style, so it was still necessary to study it. For women who weren`t studying them in the first place, that wasn`t an issue. They did however often study classical Chinese cursive script as an art, and Hiragana was derived from this.



Umm, last time I checked the newspaper was limited to about 2000 (the Joyo and a few specialty characters). Trust me, there is no way an average Japanese person knows anywhere close to 40,000. Even if you include all the specialized name Kanji, you still don`t even hit 3000. The 40,000 sounds a lot more like Chinese.

あなたの源を提供しなさい。 日本の文化的なおよび言語で修士号がある人と論争しな いか。

それは主題にちょうど加えたらよりよい。 むしろトロールである。 これに応答を送り返すことができ

れば。 それから私は少しを点与える。 しかしそうでなかったら、あなたの愚か。 ハハ

[jrocka83]

Originally Posted by MMM

I don't think the number of possible characters is the issue, but the practical number of kanji actually used.

You are wright, the practicile use of Kanji is much lower. But there still 130,000 cheracters in existance. I they are used or have been used at one time or another.