Do languages such as Chinese and Japanese have letters, or are there only symbols for words?

Answer 1

Chinese and Japanese are based on a syllabary, not alphabet. They have Kanji (Chinese Characters) that stand for words and ideas. Chinese make whole sentences out of these Kanji. The Japanese adopted them and use them for words as well as parts of words. The Japanese also use two syllabaries. Characters that represent their sound system (a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko.....). Hiragana is a rounded, 'cursive' like hand that was derived from Kanji. The Japanese took away the intricate strokes of Kanji that represented a sound they wanted. Katakana is a harsher, block like system. It was used more by scholars for technical writings at first. Now all 'loan-words' (English words like coffee are spelled KO-HI-I to keep the sound the same) are written in Katakana.

Chinese use over 3,000 Kanji for fluency. Japanese make it with less than 2,000. While they have similar origins, the sounds and meanings are not always the same.

For an earlier answerer:
Japanese is definitely easier, but now knowing some Japanese, you may find Chinese fun. In order to understand Kanji meanings in Chinese or Japanese, you must look at the base components known as radicals. Each Kanji character will have a meaning radical and a sound radical. Being Chinese in origin, Kanji dissection is actually easier in Chinese as the meanings have not been changed or modified like in Japanese.

Answer 2

Chinese is a character system that is called logographic- meaning that the pictures stand for the words. However, these "pictures" are made up of smaller "pictures" that indicate meaning, inflection and pronunciation.

Korean, which may look similar to some other east asian writing systems, has a syllabic system. Meaning, that each individual "letter" is comprised with other letters in such a way that there appears to be a little picture or symbol for one syllable. I think this is the easiest : )

Answer 3

I took japanese and it has an alphabet. Each letter stands for a syllable like ka ki ku ke ko, then you have sa si su se so, then ma mi mu me mo. And so on. Chinese on the other hand each symbol reprients an entire word or idea. SO its not like you can sound out a word it you dont know it but you see it in a book. You need to learn ever single symbol. Its kinda retareded. Japanese is much better.

Answer 4

In Japanese they have symbols that represent sounds, objects, or ideas. You can combine multiple symbols to create one symbol that would represent an idea. They are called Katakana, Hirogana (sp?) and Kanji. I'm not sure about Chinese.

Answer 5

As an American reading chinese language & going to China quickly, my humble suggestion could to be VERY VERY careful approximately your translation. Language is an quite cultural ingredient... words that translate at as quickly as from chinese language as "iron rooster" or "horse, lion" can unquestionably have quite hassle-free meanings like "stingy individual" and "somewhat nicely." that's basically for occasion how odd chinese language is to the western translator - it works any incorrect way, too. basically stringing words mutually without being conscious of subculture and grammar is basically approximately sure to no longer make an excellent sort of expertise - somewhat frankly, maximum chinese language character tattoos on human beings do no longer. and likewise remember, font concerns - i think of human beings tend to overlook different languages have categories of handwriting, too :) Your widespread chinese language character got here upon at random is the English equivalent of writing contained in the gadget font in English - no longer imaginitive in any respect, and somewhat frankly a chuckle to maximum chinese language human beings. So be careful and picture it with the aid of. there are a number of components to evaluate!

Answer 6

Japanese has a letter like system where sounds are written down.

Answer 7

chinese only has symbols, but in japanese there is hirigana and katakana which are squiggly lines but are sylables and romaji which look like our letters

Answer 8

word symbols only I think

Answer 9

no letters.
characters/symbols for words.

Answer 10

Nope, all symbols.