Chinese "kanji"

[Peter A. McGraw]

The Mandarin Chinese word for the Chinese characters is Hanzi (first
syllable [xan], second syllable syllabic [dz], falling tone on each
syllable).  Kanji is a Japanese word, denoting the Japanese orthography
that's closest to Chinese characters.  I guess I can see some logic to
applying it to the Chinese characters that kanji was derived from, even
though it's a kind of backwards logic.  If "kanji" is becoming the general
American term for Chinese characters, it's a trend I've missed completely.

Peter Mc.

--On Wednesday, October 05, 2005 7:21 PM -0400 Gadi Niram
<gadi at MANIAGRID.COM> wrote:

> I've occasionally heard people use the Japanese word "kanji" when
> referring to Chinese characters used to write Chinese.  Bryan Preston's
> review of the movie _Serenity_ is the first time I've come across it in
> written form.
>
> http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/preston200510050823.asp
>
> "Though the film never spells it out explicitly, it’s clear from the kanji
> characters on viewscreens and in advertisements everywhere that at some
> point China surpassed the United States on the way to dominating the
> Alliance"
>
> It's also interesting that Preston uses "kanji characters", as opposed to
> just "kanji".  At any rate, perhaps "kanji" is becoming the general
> American term for Chinese characters?
>
> --
> Gadi Niram
> gadi at maniagrid.com



***************************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ****************************