Kanji trivia
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Kanji Mini Quiz
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Originating from China, what is the name for the logographic symbols used in Japanese writing?
Kanji literally translates to Han characters. While most were imported from China, Japan created its own characters called kokuji for native concepts like mountain passes.
What system uses Latin letters to represent the phonetic sounds of the Japanese language?
The Hepburn system is the most common form of romaji and is the international standard used for Japanese passports, road signs, and railway stations.
Japanese Kanji have 2 common readings: the Chinese-derived Onyomi and which native Japanese reading?
Onyomi approximates the historical Chinese pronunciation of a character, while Kunyomi uses a native Japanese word to express the character's meaning.
Serving as building blocks for complex characters, what components are used to categorize Kanji in a dictionary?
Radicals, known as bushu, often provide semantic clues to a kanji's meaning. For example, the water radical is found in characters for water-related words like sea and river.
Often written in small script above a character, what phonetic guides help readers identify difficult Kanji?
Furigana is also known as ruby. The term originates from the 5.5-point ruby type size traditionally used for these small phonetic glosses in printing.