Writing System
There are three main types of written characters in Japan: kannji, hiragana, and katakana. Roman letters are also used, but to a much lesser extent.
Kanji characters are ideograms which were brought in from China. On the basis of the Chinese and Japanese readingsof these characters there were devised the photy-netic manyokana characters which in turn were simplified into the hiragana and katakana systems in about the ninth century. The characters of higagana and katakana systems represent single syllables. Each system presently has forty-six characters.
In writing Japanese, most nouns, verbroots and adjectives are represented by kanji while the verb endings indicating the various tenses etc., the auxilliary verbs and the particles are written in one of the kana systems(hiragana or katakana). Adverbs can be written in either kanji or kana characterds. Of the two kana systems, hiragana has by far the wider usage in modern times. Katakana characters are used mostly for the spelling of loan words brought into Japanese from other language.
The first characters taught at school are those of the hiragana system. In fact, however, a fairly large percentage of Japanese children are able to read and write kana characters even before they enter school.
All three types of Japanese characters are designed to be written in vertical lines, though they can also be written horizontally. When written vertically, the first line comes on the right of the page and succeeding lines follow it to the left. Years ago, almost all writing was vertical but the horizontal style has gradually become more popular since it is more adaptable to inclusion of Arabic numerals and passages in foreign languages. From the reader’s point of view, however, vertically written sentences are easier to assimilate and for this reason most newspapers, magazines and popular books are printed in this style.
【日本語訳】
文化―文字
日本では漢字・平仮名・片仮名の３種類の文字を使う。このほか、ローマ字も使われることがある。
漢字は中国から伝わった表意文字である。漢字の音訓で国語を表現した万葉仮名が考案され、これを簡略化して書いたものから、９世紀ごろ平仮名・片仮名が発生した。平仮名・片仮名はいずれも音節文字である。現在はそれぞれ４６文字を使う。
日本語を書くとき名詞・動詞・形容詞などは多くは漢字で書き、動詞および形容詞の活用変化の部分や助動詞・助詞は仮名で書く。副詞は漢字でも仮名でも書く。
現在は平仮名が広く使われ、片仮名は外来語を表す場合に用いられる。
学校で最初に教えられる文字は平仮名である。しかし現在は、学校へ入学前に仮名の読み書きのできる子供が多い。
日本の文字は縦書き用にできているが、横書きもできる。縦書きの場合は右から左へ行を移す。昔は縦書きが多かったが、数字の表記や外国語の引用に便利な横書きが逐次普及してきた。しかし、読みやすさは縦書きの方なので、一般の新聞・雑誌・書籍は縦書きのものが多い。
