Chinese "kanji"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>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"

I would think "Chinese characters" would have been better here, since from
the context the writer believes that these are actually characters from
Chinese (rather than from Japanese, say). "Kanji" means "Chinese[-type]
characters" in Japanese as I understand it; cf. "Romaji" = "Roman[-type]
characters" or "letters of Latin alphabets". Chinese-type characters used
in Japan include a few not used in Chinese but they're still called "kanji"
(I think); similarly English uses letters not used in Latin but they're
still called "letters of a Latin alphabet" (I think).

>It's also interesting that Preston uses "kanji characters", as opposed to
>just "kanji".

"Kanji characters" is a redundancy like "PIN number", I guess. Given that
the author wanted to use "kanji", I think it's a good addition, since not
every reader will recognize "kanji" alone.

>At any rate, perhaps "kanji" is becoming the general
>American term for Chinese characters?

I don't know, but it's what I use in casual conversation, because "Chinese
characters" is too long (and might be misinterpreted to exclude
nearly-identical characters encountered in Japanese or occasionally Korean
etc.) and the Chinese equivalent "hanzi" is too awkward to pronounce in
English speech (sounds to me like /xan dzz/, ignoring tone: /kan dZi/ comes
easier to my mouth). No doubt others do as I do, but I think many persons
who study foreign languages (maybe especially these Asian ones) like to use
their new words (so the student of Chinese may typically say "han zi",
tones and all, even when speaking English). I don't know whether or not
"kanji" has entered the youngsters' vocabulary in connection with Japanese
popular cultural material (manga, anime, etc.); some other Japanese words
such as "kawaii" = "cute" seem to be cropping up among the local kids.

-- Doug Wilson