THEORY: Kanji, was: THEORY: final features, moras...

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000 08:13:54 -0700, Marcus Smith <smithma@...> wrote:

<...>
> "Kanji" is a compound. "Kan" is found in words
>referring to Chinese things, such as in _kanpooyaku_ 'traditional Chinese
>medicine'. My Japanese prof told me that it is the same root in _Kankoku_
>'Korea'. She said kanji were introduced to Japan through Korea, so "kanji"
>actually means "Korean character". This could be true, but I have my
>doubts. "Ji" is the word for "character, letter" or "handwriting".
I thouight for some reason that _kanji_ is simply the Japanese reading
for _Hanzi_ (pinyin) = 'Chinese characters'. Han (in Chinese) being
formerly a name of a river, then of a dynasty, and now meaning simply
'Chinese'.


Basilius