scientific fact
#let me be for real for a moment some of the reasons kanji have so many readings are #they entered the Japanese language as loanwords multiple times at different times of history #so different Chinese pronunciations = different kanji reading #as Chinese pronunciation changed plus a lot of loanwoards entered Japanese as specialised language #some of the readings are kind of euphonic changes depending on what the kanji is attached to (sh sounds vs j sounds vs z sounds a big one) #and some are the old Japanese word that was attached to a kanji with the same meaning = nama #which is also why there are so many homophones since Chinese is a tonal language and Japanese isn't @pudentilla
OHHHH IT'S ONYOMI VS KUNYOMI TIME!! Okay sorry for the caps but this is a subject I actually think is really cool.
So the official term for this, when a kanji is read one way in some contexts and a different way in others, is usually a case of onyomi vs kunyomi. -yomi, "reading" (from yomu "to read") basically categorizes words into whether you read them with the chinese pronunciation or the japanese pronunciation.
There are a lot of complicated factors that go into this but the easiest way for english speakers to wrap their heads around it is that the Japanese language ended up with multiple sets of vocabulary in the same way that the English language did with the Germanic language/Romance language split; you have one set of vocabulary for common, everyday use that derives from germanic vocab, and then another set of vocabulary for fancy, formal use that derives from Latinate vocab. The classic example is using swine to describe the animal, which the Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxon farmers and handlers would tend to, and porc to describe the meat, which the French-speaking Normans would eat. But pretty much every word in the English language has some degree of casual-formal duplication of this kind.
Much like European scholars did with Latin, a bunch of vocabulary got imported by the literati of Japan starting around about the 5th century in order to have a different and more formal register to talk about certain topics. This was imported alongside the Chinese writing system at the same time, which then over the next few centuries was shifted into a simpler, non-logographic, syllabic script that became hiragana (the wavy one.)
But that means that a bunch of imported Chinese vocabulary was conventionally written in their original-or-close-to-it hanzi form, and spoken with their original-or-close-to-it Chinese pronunciation. Words of this type have a much higher incidence of long vowels, left over from the Chinese where each character would represent a single complex syllable varied by vowel intonation, compared to native Japanese words which are polysyllabic and hit more consonants.
So, the system has evolved in various directions over time, and now there are a lot of ways that a single character can be read depending on positioning and context, but the broad strokes are: if the kanji is mostly on its own, surrounded by hiragana, it will take the Japanese reading (kunyomi) and if it's part of a compound word, paired with other kanji, it will take the Chinese reading (onyomi.) The more formal the text -- especially notable with medical, scientific, or governmental texts -- the more dense and compacted it will get, with a much higher ratio of kanji compounds to hiragana, and a correspondingly higher dose of onyomi readings.
To leave off with one example: the video above highlights (手), which is 'hand.' When it appears by itself surrounded by simple words like participles, it takes the kunyomi te, like in the sentence 'take my hand' (手を握って, te o nigitte.) But if you are using it as part of a more abstraction concept, like in 手動 -- done by hand, or manual, see how the english term underwent the exact same shift into latinate when it gains a level of abstraction? -- then it becomes part of a compound word with another kanji. Now it takes the onyomi shu, to become part of the compound word shudou. Catch that long vowel! If it weren't part of a compound word, that 動 by itself would take the kunyomi hataraki, for motion or action.
Anyway, onyomi and kunyomi, fun!
Some more examples in English:
- 'Troupe', 'troop', and 'thorp'. Loaned from French twice, as well as the homegrown term for a small village/group of houses.
- 'Pack', and 'bailey'. Native word and French loan.
- "Sir', 'sire', 'seigneur' and 'Monsieur'. All from French at slightly different times and in different contexts.
- Same with 'dame', 'dam', 'madam', and 'ma'am'.
- 'Mister', 'master', 'magister' and 'maître d'. All from Latin and French.
- To 'spout' and 'spit'. First is from Dutch, second is native English.
- To 'wake', 'watch' and 'wait'. First two are native English, third is from French.
- To 'ward' versus 'guard'. Same word, but the second one was borrowed into Latin and then back into English from French.
In English the connections are disguised by using different characters for each word, but it's the same process!
for the lovely lovely deafies out there who want to get involved in direct action you absolutely 100% cannot ever bring a hearing aid or cochlear implant with bluetooth to any direct action. bluetooth devices all carry a unique signal that can be used to identify you if it's picked up at a direct action. go with a [more] hearing buddy and communicate in sign language. if you don't mutually know a sign language then come up with gestures. do not risk your freedom because you want to have your hearing aid/cochlear implant at the action. it's not worth it.
flock cameras are also now tracking bluetooth device signatures when you pass them. if you drive past a flock camera with your bluetooth-enabled hearing aid or cochlear implant, the flock camera knows you passed through
Wait I just realized this is gonna apply to all cgms and most if not all insulin pumps. They’re all Bluetooth devices, it’s essential to how they work
I did not think it possible, but I have just developed even more hatred, derision, and contempt for the perpetual surveillance state.
This kind of shit is why my writing is about disability AND surveillance. This is the newest way disability is being used to surveil and target people, but the trend has been around for a lot longer than any of us.
Wait actually can someone source this for me? I’ve got a presentation coming up that I would really like to include this in.
cracking myself up thinking about the movement towards simplified forms in cave paintings
grug: grug must paint every hair on buffalo in realistic detail
thog: grug can chill out, audience know what buffalo look like. just do one line like thog
thog: cave painting world no longer look for photorealism. expression of form and movement is new frontier
grug: but then how will grug demonstrate high level of skill? grug have art degree
thog: any caveman represent buffalo as it is. grug must represent what it means to grug
grug: hm. this will challenge grug. but grug enjoy rising to occasion
can i interest u in a box of friend??
it’s him…… the Grey Earl…………..
A most honored guest at the royal ball!
A few weeks ago one of my historical pet peeves was activated when I heard about a new Robin Hood movie that takes the groundbreaking, unprecedented, bold and visionary step of suggesting that the Middle Ages were a time of brutality, cynicism, and lawlessness.
Sarcasm alert. Everything I've heard about this movie sounds like it was created specifically to annoy me, so I'm going to try to ignore it and just talk about my pet peeve, which is this pop culture myth that the medieval period was particularly filthy, brutal, misogynistic and lawless.
Which is simply not the truth, and here's a true story from 1348 that shows the real Middle Ages.
We know this story because it's a very important moment in the development of common law - that is, the facts and the conclusion of the story were written down and became the basis for how similar cases would be decided long into the future. This 1348 judicial decision (citation: I de S et Uxor v W de S (1348) yb 22 edw iii f 99) is still read by law students today when studying the tort (or wrong) of assault. That's nearly seven hundred years of judges and lawyers looking back at a medieval judicial decision and saying, "Yes! That was a good and just decision!"
To set the stage, it's the 1300s - a century famous for the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, the Peasants' Revolt, and the Babylonian Captivity of the Church that saw the papacy moved to the French town of Avignon as puppets of the French monarchcy. But that's not the only thing that happens in the 1300s. This century also sees the publication of Dante's Divine Comedy; the Clockwork Revolution in which intricately designed clocks tracked everything from the hours of the day (which were measured in variable lengths) to the phases of the moon and the Sun's path through the zodiac; the creation of gorgeous books of hours and tapestries; the career of Christine de Pizan, the first woman known to have made a living from her pen; the writing of Geoffrey Chaucer and the radical social and religious reforms proposed by John Wyclif and his followers.
About the middle of this century a man known to history as W de S came in the night to the house of I de S and M, his wife, looking to buy some wine. The door to the taven was closed, so W pounded on the door with a hatchet, which he had in his hand. At this, M, the tavern-keeper's wife, put her head out the window and told him to stop. W responded by throwing the hatchet at M, narrowly missing her.
The tavern-keeper and his wife, contrary to what pop culture will tell you, responded exactly the way a couple of pub owners might respond today: they took the offender to court and argued that W had made an assault on M. W argued, in response, that he had committed no crime because the hatchet had not in fact struck M.
You might now be thinking that of course W would have won the case, since no actual physical harm was done to the woman he'd attacked. But you would be wrong! The judge in the case declared that the assault itself was harmful, and that W was liable to pay compensation for the fright he had caused M.
"Ever since then," states my old Torts textbook, "the tort of assault has extended protection to a person's right to be free of emotional disturbance brought about by intentional threats of physical violence."
Law did exist in the middle ages. Women, as well as men, could expect to be protected by the law from assault. And not only physical, but even emotional damages could be awarded for assault...all the way back in 1348.
It wasn't a perfect time, but it was far from the callous brutality depicted on our movie screens.
#i just so happened to be perusing the dsa's religious socialism's website yesterday#and there was an interesting essay about this movie's exclusion of friar tuck!#friar tuck being a jovial character that ruins the grim dark fantasy i guess#but also friar tuck being a representation of systemic reform#or someone inside a corrupt system (the church) who actually partakes in the rebellion against it - via @jabletown
Sandstorm by Darude: Have you seen this music video?
Yes, I have
I haven't, but I've heard the song
Never heard this song
Themed Sunday: Catch me if you can
neosatsuma
