![]() They don’t always use the same set of Chinese characters and those used in Korean (hanja) and Japan (kanji) are distinct from those used in China in many respects.įirst, they look much more similar (but might not be the same) to traditional Chinese characters than simplified Chinese characters. Kanji and Hanja originated from Chinese characters but they differ in pronunciation and usage. They are of the same origin, but used differently, much like “alphabet”, “alfabeto”, and “alfabet”.Īfter reading about the common histories between these writing systems, I hope you feel a bit more comfortable differentiating between them. Questions about Hanzi, Kanji, and Hanja Are Hanzi, Kanji, and Hanja the same thing? The action of forcing somebody to do something Just like pain and pain (meaning bread in French), gift and Gift (meaning poison in German), embarrassed and embarazada (meaning pregnant in Spanish), there are also false friends in CJK languages, especially between Chinese and Japanese. Want to search more common words between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean? You can use this tool here to search more yourself! List of “False Friends” in Chinese and Japanese Take a look at this list of similar Hanzi, Kanji, and Hanja and you’ll see why! English Just like student, étudiant(e), and estudante, Hanzi, Kanji, and Hanja can be very similar in terms of meaning and pronunciation. The good news is, if you have just started learning Korean, Hanja does not need to be a concern, which will certainly save you a lot of time! So, in modern everyday Korean, you don’t see Hanja very often, except on some very rare occasions. Unlike Kanji, Hanja eventually faded away from the Korean language in the late 19th century with the popularization of Hangul, the Korean alphabet and writing system. These words were called Hanja, or Chinese characters incorporated into Korean with Korean pronunciation. ![]() HanjaĬhinese characters entered the Korean peninsula a bit later than the Japanese island, sometime between the 6th and 9th centuries AD. So, in today’s Japanese language, kanji, hiragana, and katakana comprise its main writing system. Later, Japanese people also developed their own two syllabic writing systems: hiragana and katakana, those cute rounded and pointed symbols you see in Japanese writing. Moving on to the land of the rising sun! By the 4th century, Japan had started to adopt Hanzi into Japanese, which became Kanji, a key component of modern Japanese language that is dreaded many Japanese learners. However, there are still arguments saying that traditional Chinese is not that difficult and there are many values lost in simplified Chinese. The introduction of simplified Chinese has greatly increased the literacy rate in mainland China, especially in rural areas. While some characters look the same in simplified and traditional Chinese (like 人), others may look very different (like 汉/漢). In the early 1900s, the debate over whether to use traditional or simplified Chinese resulted in what it looks like today: Mainland China uses simplified Chinese while Taiwan and Hong Kong continue to use traditional Chinese. In fact, Chinese is quite the equivalent of Latin or Greek in th e Sino-Tibetan language family.Īs the Chinese language evolved, it grew simpler and simpler. For many centuries, the Chinese character script was the only script used in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Take a look at some of these examples here and you’ll get the idea:Īs one of the oldest languages in the world, Chinese has also spread to and influenced many other neighboring countries. ![]() ![]() The sounds used to pronounce Hanzi are also not based on the written form itself. Hanzi are logograms, which means each symbol-like character represents an idea. It is also one of the most widely adopted writing systems. This is the oldest writing system that is still used in the modern world. Hanzi (Chinese characters) is the current writing system of Chinese. Now, let’s take a look at them one by one. In the 20th century, the Chinese language further evolved into simplified Chinese, which is now used in mainland China, while Taiwan and Hong Kong kept on using traditional Chinese characters. Gradually, Japanese people adopted Chinese characters and formed Kanji, while Korean people used Hanzi to form Hanja. Thanks to their proximity to China, Japan and Korea have long been influenced by the Chinese language and culture. Chinese, on the other hand, is one of the oldest languages in the world with an ancient writing system.
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