Back to the Roots
In Kanji Alchemy – Back to the Roots the initial task is to find the “missing radical”, i.e. to select the appropriate element out of a collection of 96 radicals that matches the character in question of which only the Japanese readings and English translation has been given.
The current text contains more than the usual Jouyou kanji as it also incorporates Jinmeiyou kanji and Hyougaiji. These particular characters used to be cross-referenced and strictly separated in the previously 6 published Kanji Alchemy books. Especially Jinmeiyou kanji - over 500 - are well represented whereas Hyougaiji have just over 60 listings. The latter are strictly used as base characters (Characters that can take additional radicals. In the Answer Key they are listed with Ø. They function primarily as a template upon which other radicals can be added.) whereas Jinmeiyou kanji also function as part of a kanji “continuum”. Although it could be argued that just focusing on 2136 Jouyou kanji is sufficient, it is also possible (or even desirable) to go beyond such a narrow view and to regard the thousands of characters as an interesting collection to be explored (within a proper context). The view taken here is that these additional kanji form a natural part of the entire kanji collection and can actually enhance and enrich the study experience.
One of the main issues for students without a kanji background is the very limited assistance of phonetic and semantic clues. The ideal phonemic orthography, for example, will have a one-to-one correspondence between the graphemes (letters) and phonemes of the language. English is clearly deficient, Spanish comes close and kana does a good job. In contrast to kana, kanji only provides limited and often inconsistent phonetic information. If on the other hand kanji would display consistent semantic clues then this could be used to offset the “phonetic deficiency”. Regrettably, neither phonetic nor semantic clues are of much help here due to a process of historical change in the Chinese language and also due to the way how the Chinese writing system has been adapted to the Japanese language.
In order to learn kanji more efficiently I propose to develop “orthographic awareness” by highlighting the role that radicals play. In concentrating on the forms – frequently unsupported by any meaning the radicals might convey – it will become possible to work with elements that are consistent and not subject to numerous exceptions. There are, as mentioned before, only 96 radicals in use here that have a high frequency rate.
In other words, I would like to suggest that to use a kind of formalism could be an effective way to deal with the shortcomings of phonetic and semantic clues. The orthographically similar kanji forms presented in a cluster (the phonetic components) combined with a focus on a limited number of semantic components (the radicals) provide the context for the learning experience without emphasising as such the sound and/or meaning. In practice, the learning process could take shape as follows.
(I) Take the time and effort to make a “sophisticated guess” when selecting an appropriate radical for the character in the first section. Treat this as part of a “heuristic approach”. According to Wikipedia: A heuristic or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation. Consider a radical on the basis of it being the most likely candidate due to its properties. Frequently, or often enough it will be a different radical that is required. Nonetheless, your reasoning method will help to create an association with the character. Example: 2E Rock 石 base character. Task: 石 + ? = ト、ねたむ be jealous. One could argue that being jealous is a psychological state of affairs and that therefore number 8 忄heart would be a good match. As it turns out 女 number 16 woman is the correct radical 妬.
(II) The Answer Key provides the complete forms of the listed kanji including the radicals. These are the listings for rock.
2E 石 セキ、シャク、コク、いし stone, rock 石 Ø
2E 岩 ガン、いわ rock, crag 岩 山
2E 拓 タク reclaim, clear 拓 扌
2E 妬 ト、ねたむ be jealous 妬 女
2E 柘 シャ、つげ wild mulberry 柘 木
2E 宕 トウ cave 宕 宀
The last two entrees in bold print (2E) refer to Jinmeiyou kanji. As can be observed, the readings (phonetics) of these 6 characters are not at all matching. The kanji in the first, second and sixth position have similar connations (stone, rock, cave) but the other 3 are not transparent. The common, indeed only regular feature here is the orthography: 石 + 5 radicals.
It makes, by the way, good sense to flag regular readings when they occur as this will help the memorisation process. In addition, the Answer Key is perfectly suitable to use for learning and review. Block the readings and English translations and work your way down to the end of the list. Combined with the first section as well as the third section – kanji compounds – regular review should be a consistent feature in the learning process.
(III) The Practice section features jukugo (kanji compounds). This third section is important both for reading purposes as compounds are the dominating word structure in texts as well as a way to disambiguate radicals when there are a large number of similar kanji.
2E 石川県 いしかわけん Ishikawa prefecture
2E 岩手県 いわてけん Iwate prefecture
2E 開拓 かいたく reclamation; cultivation
2E 嫉妬 しっと jealousy
2E 柘植久慶 つげひさよし Personal Name
2E 愛宕 あいとう Family Name
In addition to "base characters" and "complementary characters" there are additional features that are relevant in the text.
創作漢字 (sousaku kanji) – “made-up” characters. Translated here (with some poetic licence) as radically modified characters. These 83 in fact non-existing characters have been used to represent kanji with a regular and consistent phonetic component but without the option to add a radical. The solution was to manually remove or “strip” a radical and use the remaining structure as a base character or template. (犭/ 辶)
See the image on the top right for examples.
人名用 Jinmeiyou kanji refer to a list of 862 characters that is maintained by the Ministry of Justice. Although sometimes added to the 2136 Jouyou kanji -General Use characters- these are a distinct set of characters and should be treated separately. 人名用漢字 literally means “Chinese characters for use in personal names” and are used as registered personal, family and place names. The list has been revised a number of times with the last change occurring in 2015. There are 212 traditional forms or variants of Jouyou kanji in the Jinmeiyou list. The remainder are 650 kanji (including variants) that do not appear in the set of Jouyou kanji.
表外字 Hyougaiji literally means "characters outside of the list" so they are neither part of the current Jouyou -general use- nor of Jinmeiyou kanji. (The two lists combined amount to approximately 3000 characters). These lists were created after the Second World War to facilitate learning of the writing system. The number of kanji to be used was scaled back, many longstanding simplified characters were adopted for official use and kanji related to names were regulated. (Jinmeiyou kanji) This makes the Hyougaiji category or non general use characters rather open-ended with the result that it contains by far the most extensive collection of kanji. The largest dictionary published in Japan – the Dai Kan Wa Jiten by Morohashi Tetsuji- lists about 50,000 characters but for kanji kentei (kanji aptitude) enthusiasts the number would be around 3,000.
Clusters. Japanese characters have a structure that allows for a modicum of understanding. There are recurring features that provide clues and it is clear that there is some kind of consistency in the proliferation of different forms. Characters have their own story to tell and that message can be reinforced when they are grouped together and treated as a set or a cluster. Within each cluster the base character (or signature character) is the starting point for additional orthographically similar kanji to follow.
Compounds. Compounds or jukugo (two or more kanji) are an essential part of texts because they constitute the most common word structure in the Japanese language. To focus on one singular character is arguably “unfinished business” because it only shows half of the story. Kanji compounds are high frequency forms and should take centre stage as far as reading texts is concerned.
Another practical reason for paying attention to kanji compounds is the fact that it would be much harder otherwise to distinguish between a large number characters that share the similar phonetic component. Associating a single character with a compound will greatly assist in keeping track of which radical belongs to which character. The (semantic) radical is, after all, the only distinguishing element between those otherwise identical kanji.
There are 12 chapters of which the last 2 chapters each share 3 units related to Complementary Characters. (Complementary Characters are kanji that in addition to a previously allocated radical can take a second one. This category has been separated from the main text and features in the last two chapters of this book.) Each of the remaining other chapters contain 7 units or weeks. This design makes it easy to start with small, self-contained units as each week has 7 days that can be studied individually. Each week contains 3 sections: in the first section the task is to select the appropriate radical for the kanji. This is followed by the Answer Key that features the kanji and their respective radicals and completed by the Practice section in which the character is shown in a kanji compound. The kanji compounds listed here are merely examples and replacing these with other compounds is up to the individual. It might be prudent to have the pace set not too high and to ensure that there is plenty of review of the material learned. As a guide-line, one weekly unit per week to start off with seems like a realistic scenario. This is ultimately, of course, an individual choice but the design allows for planning so that the study load can be divided in a considered and rational way. In any event, one could say that learning kanji is perhaps more like a marathon than a sprint…
The current text contains more than the usual Jouyou kanji as it also incorporates Jinmeiyou kanji and Hyougaiji. These particular characters used to be cross-referenced and strictly separated in the previously 6 published Kanji Alchemy books. Especially Jinmeiyou kanji - over 500 - are well represented whereas Hyougaiji have just over 60 listings. The latter are strictly used as base characters (Characters that can take additional radicals. In the Answer Key they are listed with Ø. They function primarily as a template upon which other radicals can be added.) whereas Jinmeiyou kanji also function as part of a kanji “continuum”. Although it could be argued that just focusing on 2136 Jouyou kanji is sufficient, it is also possible (or even desirable) to go beyond such a narrow view and to regard the thousands of characters as an interesting collection to be explored (within a proper context). The view taken here is that these additional kanji form a natural part of the entire kanji collection and can actually enhance and enrich the study experience.
One of the main issues for students without a kanji background is the very limited assistance of phonetic and semantic clues. The ideal phonemic orthography, for example, will have a one-to-one correspondence between the graphemes (letters) and phonemes of the language. English is clearly deficient, Spanish comes close and kana does a good job. In contrast to kana, kanji only provides limited and often inconsistent phonetic information. If on the other hand kanji would display consistent semantic clues then this could be used to offset the “phonetic deficiency”. Regrettably, neither phonetic nor semantic clues are of much help here due to a process of historical change in the Chinese language and also due to the way how the Chinese writing system has been adapted to the Japanese language.
In order to learn kanji more efficiently I propose to develop “orthographic awareness” by highlighting the role that radicals play. In concentrating on the forms – frequently unsupported by any meaning the radicals might convey – it will become possible to work with elements that are consistent and not subject to numerous exceptions. There are, as mentioned before, only 96 radicals in use here that have a high frequency rate.
In other words, I would like to suggest that to use a kind of formalism could be an effective way to deal with the shortcomings of phonetic and semantic clues. The orthographically similar kanji forms presented in a cluster (the phonetic components) combined with a focus on a limited number of semantic components (the radicals) provide the context for the learning experience without emphasising as such the sound and/or meaning. In practice, the learning process could take shape as follows.
(I) Take the time and effort to make a “sophisticated guess” when selecting an appropriate radical for the character in the first section. Treat this as part of a “heuristic approach”. According to Wikipedia: A heuristic or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation. Consider a radical on the basis of it being the most likely candidate due to its properties. Frequently, or often enough it will be a different radical that is required. Nonetheless, your reasoning method will help to create an association with the character. Example: 2E Rock 石 base character. Task: 石 + ? = ト、ねたむ be jealous. One could argue that being jealous is a psychological state of affairs and that therefore number 8 忄heart would be a good match. As it turns out 女 number 16 woman is the correct radical 妬.
(II) The Answer Key provides the complete forms of the listed kanji including the radicals. These are the listings for rock.
2E 石 セキ、シャク、コク、いし stone, rock 石 Ø
2E 岩 ガン、いわ rock, crag 岩 山
2E 拓 タク reclaim, clear 拓 扌
2E 妬 ト、ねたむ be jealous 妬 女
2E 柘 シャ、つげ wild mulberry 柘 木
2E 宕 トウ cave 宕 宀
The last two entrees in bold print (2E) refer to Jinmeiyou kanji. As can be observed, the readings (phonetics) of these 6 characters are not at all matching. The kanji in the first, second and sixth position have similar connations (stone, rock, cave) but the other 3 are not transparent. The common, indeed only regular feature here is the orthography: 石 + 5 radicals.
It makes, by the way, good sense to flag regular readings when they occur as this will help the memorisation process. In addition, the Answer Key is perfectly suitable to use for learning and review. Block the readings and English translations and work your way down to the end of the list. Combined with the first section as well as the third section – kanji compounds – regular review should be a consistent feature in the learning process.
(III) The Practice section features jukugo (kanji compounds). This third section is important both for reading purposes as compounds are the dominating word structure in texts as well as a way to disambiguate radicals when there are a large number of similar kanji.
2E 石川県 いしかわけん Ishikawa prefecture
2E 岩手県 いわてけん Iwate prefecture
2E 開拓 かいたく reclamation; cultivation
2E 嫉妬 しっと jealousy
2E 柘植久慶 つげひさよし Personal Name
2E 愛宕 あいとう Family Name
In addition to "base characters" and "complementary characters" there are additional features that are relevant in the text.
創作漢字 (sousaku kanji) – “made-up” characters. Translated here (with some poetic licence) as radically modified characters. These 83 in fact non-existing characters have been used to represent kanji with a regular and consistent phonetic component but without the option to add a radical. The solution was to manually remove or “strip” a radical and use the remaining structure as a base character or template. (犭/ 辶)
See the image on the top right for examples.
人名用 Jinmeiyou kanji refer to a list of 862 characters that is maintained by the Ministry of Justice. Although sometimes added to the 2136 Jouyou kanji -General Use characters- these are a distinct set of characters and should be treated separately. 人名用漢字 literally means “Chinese characters for use in personal names” and are used as registered personal, family and place names. The list has been revised a number of times with the last change occurring in 2015. There are 212 traditional forms or variants of Jouyou kanji in the Jinmeiyou list. The remainder are 650 kanji (including variants) that do not appear in the set of Jouyou kanji.
表外字 Hyougaiji literally means "characters outside of the list" so they are neither part of the current Jouyou -general use- nor of Jinmeiyou kanji. (The two lists combined amount to approximately 3000 characters). These lists were created after the Second World War to facilitate learning of the writing system. The number of kanji to be used was scaled back, many longstanding simplified characters were adopted for official use and kanji related to names were regulated. (Jinmeiyou kanji) This makes the Hyougaiji category or non general use characters rather open-ended with the result that it contains by far the most extensive collection of kanji. The largest dictionary published in Japan – the Dai Kan Wa Jiten by Morohashi Tetsuji- lists about 50,000 characters but for kanji kentei (kanji aptitude) enthusiasts the number would be around 3,000.
Clusters. Japanese characters have a structure that allows for a modicum of understanding. There are recurring features that provide clues and it is clear that there is some kind of consistency in the proliferation of different forms. Characters have their own story to tell and that message can be reinforced when they are grouped together and treated as a set or a cluster. Within each cluster the base character (or signature character) is the starting point for additional orthographically similar kanji to follow.
Compounds. Compounds or jukugo (two or more kanji) are an essential part of texts because they constitute the most common word structure in the Japanese language. To focus on one singular character is arguably “unfinished business” because it only shows half of the story. Kanji compounds are high frequency forms and should take centre stage as far as reading texts is concerned.
Another practical reason for paying attention to kanji compounds is the fact that it would be much harder otherwise to distinguish between a large number characters that share the similar phonetic component. Associating a single character with a compound will greatly assist in keeping track of which radical belongs to which character. The (semantic) radical is, after all, the only distinguishing element between those otherwise identical kanji.
There are 12 chapters of which the last 2 chapters each share 3 units related to Complementary Characters. (Complementary Characters are kanji that in addition to a previously allocated radical can take a second one. This category has been separated from the main text and features in the last two chapters of this book.) Each of the remaining other chapters contain 7 units or weeks. This design makes it easy to start with small, self-contained units as each week has 7 days that can be studied individually. Each week contains 3 sections: in the first section the task is to select the appropriate radical for the kanji. This is followed by the Answer Key that features the kanji and their respective radicals and completed by the Practice section in which the character is shown in a kanji compound. The kanji compounds listed here are merely examples and replacing these with other compounds is up to the individual. It might be prudent to have the pace set not too high and to ensure that there is plenty of review of the material learned. As a guide-line, one weekly unit per week to start off with seems like a realistic scenario. This is ultimately, of course, an individual choice but the design allows for planning so that the study load can be divided in a considered and rational way. In any event, one could say that learning kanji is perhaps more like a marathon than a sprint…
