# character (hanzi, kanji)



## kusurija

Hi, all!
How do You name characters (e.g. Japanese kanji or Chinese characters) in Your respective language? What is meaning of this word?
Thanks.

In Czech: 
znaky (marks)

In Lithuanian:
hieroglifai (hieroglyphs  )(came from Russian)

In Japanese: 
字[ji] _or_ 漢字[kanji] (character or character from Han(漢) dynasty 206BC. - 220)

In Russian:
иероглифы[ieroglify](hieroglyphs  )


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## andlima

In Portuguese:
_ideograma_ (or simply "_caractere_", as in "caracteres chineses")


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## Whodunit

In German, we say "Zeichen" (signs/characters).


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## Outsider

kusurija said:
			
		

> How do You name characters (e.g. Japanese kanji or Chinese characters) in Your respective language?





andlima said:


> In Portuguese:
> _ideograma_ (or simply "_caractere_", as in "caracteres chineses")


In _our_ language, though, the main characters are called _letras_ (letters). 

In addition, we use punctuation marks and diacritics, but I don't imagine that *Kusurija* wants us to be that thorough.

BTW, the correct singular is _carácter_. Many people don't know this.


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## Whodunit

Outsider said:


> In _our_ language, though, the main characters are called _letras_ (letters).



I was thinking about this myself. Does Kusurija want us to translate "Chinese/Japanese characters" into our language or how we call our characters?

If it's the latter, you'd say "Buchstaben" (letters) in German.


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## andlima

Outsider said:


> In _our_ language, though, the main characters are called _letras_ (letters).
> In addition, we use punctuation marks and diacritics, but I don't imagine that *Kusurija* wants us to be that thorough.



Yes, a regular letter like "A" or "Z", or even one from Cyrillic or Greek alphabet, is called "letra", but I thought he was referring specifically to Chinese and Japanese characters, wasn't he?



Outsider said:


> BTW, the correct singular is _carácter_. Many people don't know this.



You're right, Out (as usual, hehehe)... In this context, the correct is "caráter" (in Brazil) or "carácter" (in Portugal).

In Brazilian Portuguese we actually have the word "_caractere_", but it's restricted to computer related areas, such as "caractere ASCII", "digite um caractere"... I bet in Portugal you guys use the word "carácter" for this too, don't you?


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## Outsider

andlima said:


> Yes, a regular letter like "A" or "Z", or even one from Cyrillic or Greek alphabet, is called "letra", but I thought he was referring specifically to Chinese and Japanese characters, wasn't he?


It would be best if *Kusurija* explained for himself what he meant to ask.



andlima said:


> In Brazilian Portuguese we actually have the word "_caractere_", but it's restricted to computer related areas, such as "caractere ASCII", "digite um caractere"... I bet in Portugal you guys use the word "carácter" for this too, don't you?


In Portugal also, there are people who think there is a word _caracter_ or _caractere_ specific to computer contexts, but this is a misconception. It just happens that this word has an irregular inflection.


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## andlima

Outsider said:


> In Portugal also, there are people who think there is a word _caracter_ or _caractere_ specific to computer contexts, but this is a misconception. It just happens that this word has an irregular inflection.



Actually, as far as Brazilian Portuguese is concerned, Houaiss dictionary has both words: "_caractere_" (although not "_caracter_") and "_caráter_". The first one has a single aception, with its use restricted to "_Rubrica: informática_", while the second one is more general, meaning written letters and symbols and a type (as in typography).


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## kusurija

I did mean only Japanese or Chinese type of *characters(*字*)*, not other type *letters* (as e.g. Latin, Cyrilic and so on). Anyway I'm very thanksfull for Your answers. I think names of all other types of letters/characters we could discuss in other thread?


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## 2PieRad

They're called han4 zi4 in Mandarin. 汉字 [simplified] 漢字 [traditional]


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## ErOtto

kusurija said:


> I did mean only Japanese or Chinese type of *characters(*字*)*


 
I guess in Spanish it would be *ideograma*, but usually they are called "caracteres chinos"... even the Japanese 


Re
Er


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## Flaminius

kusurija said:


> I did mean only Japanese or Chinese type of *characters(*字*)*, not other type *letters* (as e.g. Latin, Cyrilic and so on).


What other writing systems do you include in this group?  Depending on the answer, which is actually a definition of 漢字, the label in *Japanese* is either 表意文字 (_hyōi moji_; ideogram) or 表語文字 (_hyōgo moji_; logogram).

It must be mentioned also that Japanese uses besides Chinese characters two sets of phonograms.


kusurija said:


> Hi, all!
> How do You name characters (e.g. Japanese kanji or Chinese characters) in Your respective language? What is meaning of this word?
> Thanks.
> 
> In Japanese:
> 字[ji] _or_ 漢字[kanji] (character or character from Han(漢) dynasty 206BC. - 220)


字 [ji] does not specifically mean a character in Japanese.  A component of any script can be referred to as 字.  文字 (_moji_) is an entire writing system or a component thereof.  In fact, Japanese (and perhaps Chinese too) is  not very interested in telling a characters system (or components thereof) from other types of scripts (or components thereof).

An alphabet, such as <A>, <B>, <C>, or <D>, can be referred to as a 字母 (_jibo_) but this is a very technical term.  Most of the time, <A>, <B>, <C>, and <D> are referred to as four _ji_'s or _moji_'s, just as <あ>, <い>, <う>, <え> and <天>, <地>, <玄>, <黄> are.  In a sense, therefore, the answer to your question is that there is no such concept, thus no word, in Japanese.


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## Black4blue

Turkish:
*Harf=Letter*
*Harfler=Letters*

We also use the word *karakter* (character).


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*: _merkki_, -n, -ä

This is obviously etymologically related to _mark_ (in English). The Finnish word also means "sign".


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## Orlin

Bulgarian: йероглифи (hieroglyphs) or sometimes (писмени) знаци ((written) signs).


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
«Ιδεογράμματα»
iðeo'ɣramata _plural neuter_; in sing. «ιδεόγραμμα», iðe'oɣrama
lit. "ideograms". Compound formed with the joining together of the feminine noun «ἰδέα» (ĭ'dĕă, i'ðea in Modern Greek)-->_idea_, from PIE base *woid-, _to know_, or *wid-, _to see_ + neuter noun «γράμμα» ('grammă, 'ɣrama in Modern Greek)-->_written character, letter, _from the verb «γράφω» ('grapʰō, 'ɣrafo in Modern Greek)-->_to write, inscribe_ from PIE base *gerbʰ-, _to scratch

_[ð] is a voiced dental non-sibilant fricative
[ɣ] is a voiced velar fricative


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## Orlin

Bulgarian uses идеограми/ideogrami too, but this is usually in specialized contexts.


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## English Speaker

ErOtto said:


> I guess in Spanish it would be *ideograma*, but usually they are called "caracteres chinos"... even the Japanese
> 
> 
> Re
> Er


 
Hummm I'm not agree with you.

For Chinese ideograms we just say: ideogramas. But for Japanese characters we say just as in Japanese: Kanjis not "caracteres Chinos".


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## Tjahzi

*Swedish *uses the word _tecken_ which means _character _or _sign_ together with the corresponding adjectives: _kinesiska/japanska tecken_. The latter is, at least by uneducated people used to denote Japaneses _kana_ as well. (Similarly, I would assume the same principle being applied to refer to _hangul _characters as _koreanska tecken_). 

However, in educated speech, I would say that the native names: _kanji_, _kana _and _jamo_ are used.

(Notes: _tecken _belongs to the neutral gender and is hence identical in singular and plural. The "borrowings" _kanji, kana _and _jamo_ are all treated as uncountable utrum.)


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## Encolpius

*Hungarian *írásjel, jel [írás writing jel sign]


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## Gavril

Icelandic *myndletur *(< _mynd _"picture" + _letur _"written character", related to Eng. _letter_, etc.) is used to refer to the characters in Chinese and other logographic writing systems; *stafur *"letter" is also used to refer to Chinese characters, but I'm not sure if this is considered technically correct

Welsh *arwyddlun *"emblem, pictograph" < _arwydd_ "sign" + _llun_ "picture, form"

Armenian *նշանագիր* (_nshanakir_/_nshanagir_) "character, symbol" < նշան "sign" + գիր "letter"

(I hope it's OK that none of these three is "my language" (in the sense of my native language), as the original question asked. )


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## puny_god

Hmmm...in language learning circles here in the Philippines, we call them by their proper names like Kanji or Hanzi or Hiragana or Katakana, whatever is applicable.
But outside the circle, I normally hear "sulat Hapon" or "sulat Intsik", sulat meaning writing.


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## ger4

Whodunit said:


> In German, we say "Zeichen" (signs/characters).


Another version is _Schriftzeichen_ ('script signs/characters'). Sometimes a more international term is used as well: _Ideogramme_ (of course only referring to Hanzi / Kanji, not to Katakana / Hiragana)


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## Sempervirens

Ciao! In lingua italiana; _ideogrammi_, ma anche _sinogrammi _o _caratteri cinesi_.
Pure in riferimento alla lingua giapponese, lingua sinoxenica, per tale sistema di scrittura cinese generalmente si fa uso delle stesse parole: _ideogrammi, sinogrammi, caratteri cinesi_.
 Per i segni autoctoni giapponesi si usa la definizione _sillabario giapponese, o sillabari giapponesi _quando si vuole specificare sia il sistema_ hiragana _sia quello_ katakana.

_Ragazzi, c'è Google che vi può tradurre le frasi.

S.V


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## 涼宮

In Spanish people colloquially call them ''letras'', ''letras chinas'' or ''símbolos'' (letters, Chinese letters, symbols).


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## Sempervirens

Holger2014 said:


> ... _Silbenschrift_ (lit.: 'syllable script') in German, but this term is also used for Devanagari etc...



Interessante! Grazie per aver condiviso il tuo sapere con tutti noi!


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