Kanji

Kanji

Kanji literally means "Chinese characters," and they're used to build content words like nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Most kanji have at least two possible readings. Typically, one reading is derived from a native Japanese word, and one reading is derived from a Chinese loanword. These are called "kunyomi" (meaning reading, 訓読み) and "onyomi" (sound reading, 音読み) respectively.

Let's take the kanji for "country," 国。On its own, we use the Japanese "kunyomi" reading, くに(kuni)。In Japanese, くに means "country." However, in compounds, we use the "onyomi" reading of こく(koku)。Therefore, China, 中国 or "middle country," is read as ちゅうごく。

So why isn't it ちゅうこく？This is due to a phenomenon known as rendaku(连浊) or sequential voicing. Syllables that come later in a word are sometimes voiced and marked with a dakuten. This is often rather unpredictable, so rendaku words should be memorized individually.

Below is a table of the kanji that are introduced in this lesson, complete with possible readings.

Kanji	Meaning	Kunyomi Reading	Onyomi Reading
人	Person	ひとhito	じん jin、にん nin
中	Middle	なか naka	ちゅう chi~yuu(Chū)
国	Country	くにkuni	こくkoku
日	Sun, Day	ひ	にち、じつ
本	Origin, Book	もと moto	ほん hon
田	Rice Paddy	た ta	でん den
大			dai
学	Education	まな•ぶ	がく gaku
生	Born, Raw	なま、い•きる	せい sei
先	Previous	さき saki	せん sen
村	village	むら mura	ソン son
山	mountain	やま	サン、 セン

英	English		えい
語	Language	かた•る	ご
何	What	なに
名	Name	な	めい、みょう
前	Before	まえ	ぜん

You may have noticed that the word Japan, or 日本 is composed of the kanji meaning "sun" and "origin." This word was first adopted by the Chinese, and to them, Japan was off to the east, the place where the sun rose or "originated."