Japanese Manga

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frank
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Japanese Manga

Postby frank » Tue Aug 09, 2005 4:27 pm

Hi,

I don't know any Japanese at all, so the phrasing of my explanations / questions might be slightly silly. I'll do my best.

I had a glance at a few Japanese manga strips (外国人) this evening and quite a few things struck me:
- All the characters were, erm, "annotated". I mean, next to the character the phonetic value was written in (a) Japanese script. Is this a common practice or only in books for younger readers (to be compared -- mutatis mutandis -- with diacritics indicating the vowel value in Farsi which can be found back in some books for kids?)?
- I was glad to be able to read/understand the title of the book (the three characters belong to my still limited Chinese vocabulary), but it struck me that the book had both traditional characters (as 語, not 语) and simplified ones (as 外人, and not ..國..). How come?
- 言 was annotated in two completely different ways (my Japanese friend read the Japanese annotations, and they sounded completely different) , while, as far as i know, Chinese (Mandarin) has yan2 and yan4. How come?

- Could anybody help me with locating on line (and exhaustive) lists of Chinese characters used in Japanese and (especially) in Korean and with some explanations on the relation Chinese character - Japanese annex Korean reading?

As always, many thanks in advance.

Frank

Iterman
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Postby Iterman » Thu Aug 25, 2005 5:19 am

Dear frank,
You posed these questions almost three weeks ago and haven't got any answers yet, in spite there are several members learned in Japanese at this forum. That's a shame!
My knowledge of Japanese is pure practical, I learned in a bar where I worked, so I cannot help you with your questions pertaining to Chinese or Korean.
First, as you may know, Japanese script is of three types; Kanji (Chinese ideograms), Hiragana (flowing letters) and Katakana (square letters).
The Japanese learn how to read by starting with Hiragana so the text in books for children is just that. Then they insert Kanji more and more completed with something called Furigana which is Katakana. The more advanced the text is the less Furigana is used. Except for people's names which most commonly always has Furigana. This comes from the (&%#¤) practice by the Japanese to have two or three or more ways of pronouncing the Kanjis so there is the answer to why the kanji iu/i , as you noticed, had more than one way being described in your text.
Good luck with your readings!
Beg your pardon for my poor spelling and grammer.

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Thu Aug 25, 2005 9:10 am

He got an answer from Flam on the other forum.

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!

frank
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Postby frank » Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:15 pm

Hi Iterman,

First of all thanks for your concern and your explanations!!

But Flaminus did react on an other board. Well, actually a few other people reacted on a few other boards (the more curious i am, the more i x-post :-).

Thanks!

Frank

Flaminius
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Postby Flaminius » Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:42 am

I think I am repeating the same problem with my nick as with my real name.....

I am Flaminius. Accent on antepenultima syllable and the first syllable with a long vowel.

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:05 am

flay-MIH-nee-uhs?

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:05 am

I always read it as fluh-MIH-nee-uhs.

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!

tcward
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Postby tcward » Sun Aug 28, 2005 9:10 pm

I always read it as flah-MEE-nee-uhs.

-Tim


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