Re: Japanese character validation

I know this is becoming off-t but just for the curious... On Fri, 7 Nov 2003 13:43:06 -0600 Eugene Lee <list-php-1@fsck.net> wrote: > On Sat, Nov 08, 2003 at 01:35:40AM +0900, - Edwin - wrote: > : > : On 2003.11.7, at 18:37 Asia/Tokyo, Marek Kilimajer wrote: > : > : ...[snip]... > : > : >Are Kanji and Kana chracter sets? > : > : "Kan" -> Chinese + "ji" -> character > : > : kana: (quoted from the American Heritage Dictionary) > : "1. Japanese syllabic writing. The characters are > simplified kanji > > Actually, kana are not "simplified kanji" because it is not > the case that kana can replace kanji while preserving the > exact same meaning. In fact, most kana by themselves have > no meaning. Well, I'm sure there's a very good reason why the dictionary I quoted called it "simplified kanji". In fact, there's a very good why many--if not all--the books that talks about the subject call it the same way. Japanese didn't have a native system of writing so they borrowed from Chinese characters. Those Chinese characters were used *phonetically* and the meanings were ignored. In other words, one can say that, during those time /even/ kanjis did NOT have any meaning for the Japanese (person) since the characters were just used phonetically. Since each Japanese word had to employ several Chinese characters, which requires a large number of strokes, they decided to simplify this bothersome process by using a cursive, simplified style of kanji. Then, (just to make the story short) during the Heian period (794-1185), the simplified characters underwent a further simplification. Thus, "hiragana" (and a little later, "katakana") was born. Actually, just by observing how the "kanas" are written, you'll notice that: * The hiragana and katakana for "na" came from the kanji "na" in "Nara" (Nara Prefecture). * The hiragana and katakana for "yu" came from the kanji "yu" which means reason, cause, etc. * All hiragana and katakana has a corresponding kanji from which they're derived from. Now, back to the future... - E - __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! BB is Broadband by Yahoo! http://bb.yahoo.co.jp/