Re: tlug: Re: Japanese input

[Taro Yamamoto <tyamamot@example.com>]

Karl-Max Wagner wrote:
> system. I am aware that there will be considerable political
> resistance against doing so and I might also have broken some
> cultural taboos in discussing the option. Well, I don't mind. I

	As far as I think, using only kana characters include not just
political/cultural problems. The tradition of the mixed use of kanji and
kana in Japanese is thought to be rooted in her developing processes of
the mutually related language and the writing system in the past, as
well as of her expansion of concepts and knowledge of the world. The
inherent agglutinating nature of the Japanese language looks to make the
mixed use of kana and kanji work very well, and this may be the
background of the fact that the Japanese language has successfully
expanded its vocabularies by applying Chinese words (in Chinese kanji
characters) especially to abstract concepts.
	As I'm not a linguistic expert, I can not jump to the conclusion that
we can not eliminate kanji. But practically speaking, not using kanji
characters will bring problems to Japanese, as listed below:

	1. Conflict words: different words sharing one and the same sound.
	2. Confusion between elements of a sentence: it will be hard to
distinguish independent words and auxiliary words. This will diminish
readability, anyway.
	3. 2. may make it necessary to introduce word spaces into Japanese, but
it will not be in good harmony with the agglutinating nature of
Japanese, and it will lead to unnecessarily redundant use of spaces and
kana characters. This may also be a minus factor for readability and
efficiency of writing and reading.

	Your idea is not a heretical one. Many Japanese people (those of the
Kana-moji-kai movement, for example) had had the same idea. I think that
we became less interested in the idea of abolishing kanji, as our own
understanding of our language matured in these decades.

	I hear that today there are controversies about using the simpler form
of "ss" instead of a ligature of a long (old calligraphic) "s" and a
short "s" in German. Some of the discussions may have political
tendencies, but other undeniable part of the issue should be based on
practical concerns, I guess. Possible obstacles to abolishion of kanji
characters will be greater than the reactions to the currently proposed
simplification of German orthography.

Regards,

Taro Yamamoto
--------------------------------------------------------------
Next TLUG Meeting: 13 June Sat, Tokyo Station Yaesu gate 12:30
Featuring Stone and Turnbull on .rpm and .deb packages
Next Nomikai: 17 July, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
After June 13, the next meeting is 8 August at Tokyo Station
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp