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See also: Kanji

this is the Chinese and Japanese vision for the same character

List of Chinese-Japanese false friends refer to words of different languages that are similar but have a significantly different and distinct meaning in Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji. Globally, numerous languages support communication among members of society. The languages used tend to use similar words that bear a different meaning. Apart from the main language; English that is widely used globally, other languages exist words spelled the same but have different meanings and pronunciations. Moreover, there are expressions or words in a given language that consists of the same meaning in all senses. China and Japan have distinct languages that facilitate communication among members of society. Chinese and Japanese are the languages used in the two nations respectively.

History effects

Main article: Sino-Japanese vocabulary

Chinese characters were invented by Cangjie, one of the bureacrats underneath the legendary Yellow Monarch intext. Cangjieinvented symbols known as zì(字) after an inspired study of the landscape, animals and the galaxies in the sky. Zì(字) is often believed to be the first model of contemporary Chinese characters. It was said in mythical folklores, when Cangjiecreated the characters, people saw crops falling like rain and hearing the wails of ghosts. The modern era supports numerous writing systems that support thousands of characters. Chinese traditional characters define most of the false friends used in society.

Japanese Kanjiwas borrowed from some words from the Chinese language that dictated the relationship between the Japanese Kanjiand the Chinese logographic. Chinese characters were introduced to Japan through letters, coins, Swords, official seals, and decorative seals imported from China.King of Na goldis the earliest import bearing Chinese characters presented to Yamatoby Emperor Guangwu of Han. The Japanese of that era had no written scripts hence the majority of people remained illiterate until the fifth century.

The earliest Japanese documents were written by bilingual Korean and Chinese officials employed at the Yamotocourt. Afterwards, a group of people known as fuhitowas were organized by the Japanese monarchto learn to read and write Chinese characters. Consequently, Yamoto court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China that led to increased literacy at the Japanese court. Japanise Kanjicould be stenciled onto thin rectangular srips of wood that could aid communication in those centuries.

In the ancient era, as there was no other written form of the Japanese language during that era, texts were read and written only in Chinese. Heian period(794-1185) facilitated the emergence of a system known as Kanbunthat involved the use of Chinese text with diacritical marks that could allow Japanese speakers to read and restructure Chinese sentences. Moreover, Chinese characters came to be used in writing Japanese words that resulted in modern kana syllabaries. Japan adopted the writing system know as man’yoganato write ancient poetry anthology man’yoshuthat used a number of Chinese characters.

In modern Japanese, kanjiis integrated into writing systems through content words such as adjectives stems, nouns and verb stems. The growth of the integration of kanji in writing systems has increased the number of false friends existing between the Chinese and Japanese languages. In some instances, Kanjiis considered difficult to read relating to the context applied. For instance, hiraganaand katakanaare writing systems which descend from kanji and have characters that are used to write phonetically complements, adjectives endings and infected verb used to disambiquate readings and give simple defitions to some miscellaneous words that are hard to comprehend in the writing systems.

Chinese characters are among the most widely adopted writing systems. In addition, the Chinese characters are mostly used in learning systems mostly in China and Japan. Consequently, most of the characters used in Japanese Kanjiadopts their meaning from the Chinese logographic characters. Chinese characters constitute the oldest used system of writing in the world.  Consequently, most of these characters are integrated into the learning systems of most nations in East Asia. Functional literacy in written Chinese requires knowledge of between three and four thousand characters as clearly shown in Chinese studies. Japanese kanjiand Chinese logographic characters have been simplified through the WWIIsimplifications in kanji and China respectively. There are numerous national standard lists of characters, pronunciations and forms distinctly defined by Japanese Kanji and Chinese writing systems.In the Japanese language, common characters are written in post-WW11 japan simplified forms. Most uncommon characters are written in Japanese traditional forms that are nearly identical to Chinese traditional forms.

Following the simplification of the characters used in Japanese and Chinese language, most characters are used with similar pronunciation and structure but have different meaning according to the respective languages.

Cultural effects

False friends in different writing systems occur when words in two distinct languages resemble each other in structures, appearances, or sounds, but have different meanings. In most cases, the false friends shared a common origin, but their relative meanings came to be defined in the contemporary sense through centuries of developments and transformations molded by the cultures and histories of the 2 regions. In a similar way, the resulting linguistic characteristics of the languages helped to shape the standards and concepts of the respective societies. For instance, the relative usage of false friends in Chinese and Japanese is to some extent both the product and the cause of the cultural difference one observes in the 2 countries nowadays.

Therefore, while writing, individuals tend to be very careful with false friends especially for the Chinese and Japanese languages that use similar words with different pronunciation and meaning in relation to the respective language. Chinese and Japanese language has numerous false friends. The following is a list of some of the most common false friends that individuals must be mindful when writing them. Some words and expressions are similar but have different pronunciation and meaning in their respective languages. False friends present linguistic homographs and synonyms based on the cultural and societal bound languages.

Among the cultural effects include contresense that occurs when a writer uses a false friend in the context whose meaning is the opposite of the original meaning as presented in the related language. In the current and modern society, writing systems have been improved following the improved number of characters integrated into the writing systems. Writers and learners of the languages both Chinese and Japanese need to be very conscious about the false friends in order to deliver the exact meaning through the written context. The difference in pronunciation and meaning indicates homograph elements in false friends.This supports the fact that the Japanese language is developed from literally Chinese language.

While writing contexts, some characters might seem familiar to the writers that they tend to assume they have similar meaning across different cultures. However, such characters might raise different meaning across different cultures due to different definitions. For instance, Chinese linguistic analysis demonstrates different contexts that have varying meaning from the Japanese Kanji despite the fact that it is the source of most Japanese characters. Consequently, readers and writers must be keen while applying such samples of false friends.

Existence of false friends in the languages governs every effort towards generating conversation across dynamic cultures. For instance, Chinese and Japanese cultures have distinct social and cultural activities that define different terminologies that determine the nature of context to be published. A bilingual writer seeking to publish context in Chinese and Japanese language need to be aware of false friends in order to present context that draws similar meaning to both languages. False friends have an impact on the context presented by speakers. While presenting a speech in a bilingual society, speakers need to e aware of false friends to avoid embarrasement.

Most language learners fall into the false friends trap in the learning process.  They give insight on how language changes. Speakers move away from certain meanings towards others considering the meaning of words and characters used in their context. Most of the Chinese and Japanese false friends arise through various actions of semantic change. Since most ofthe Japanese language characters are borrowed from the Chinese language there is a shift that defines the similarity of the context presented. This motivates the need for being careful while writing since the meaning between the paired languages in very different raising definitions that differ in very distinct contexts. Therefore, false friends have a cultural impact on writing and learning bilingual languages whose caracters have some defining similarities.

List of Chinese-Japanese false friends

This pair of languages has a huge list of false friends that define words used in the two languages but each has distinct meanings. Although there are numerous false friends in this language pair, the list highlights some of the commonly used words in the two distinct languages. False friends might be challenging for learners and writers who have an interest in learning both Chinese and Japanese languages.

Among the commonly used false friends in Japanese and Chinese languages, include:

Commonly used False Friends	Chinese languages definition	Japanese language definition
1.     私	private, selfish or personal	I
2.     娘	“mother” or “woman”.	daughter
3.     先生	sir or mister	teacher
4.     汤	soup.	hot water or spring
5.     娘	toilet paper.	A written message(letter)
6.     勉强	the action of forcing somebody to do something.	studying.
7.     住所	‘dwelling’ or ‘residence’ Also, the expression refers to the residence of a corporate figure.	the location of a place simply an address.
8.     汽车	automobile and motor vehicle	locomotive (train)
9.     中古	“the middle ages” and at times refer to Cuba and China.	a recycled item
10.  爱人	a spouse; wife or husband.	a mistress
11.  丈夫	an adult, husband or brave gentleman.	a hero, durable, unbreakable or robustness; health in the Japanese language.
12.  高等学校	an institute of higher learning.	high school
13.  大丈夫	a man of character; real man	a response in conversation meaning “all right; okay”
14.  邪魔	the demon; wicked spirit; the devil	a hinderance, obstacle or nuisance; bother.
15.  旅馆	hotel	a Japanese traditional-style restaurant.
16.  非常	非常meaning ‘very; extremely’.  Also, in literay Chinese, 非常 means something extraordinary; unusual.	something unusual; extraordinary; emergency or unusual.
17.  方面	an aspect	direction.
18.  情报	intelligence; information (of an espionage nature or military).	news, information or gossip in the Japanese language.
19.  信号	signal.	traffic lights or signals as well.
20.  新闻	reports of current events (news).	a newspaper.
21.  标榜	the act of advertising; to parade; to brag or to boast.	standing for someone; advocacy.
22.  浴衣	a bathrobe.	a type of light robe mainly used for casual wear in Japanese.
23.  约束	the act of restraining or restricting.	an appointment or promise
24.  鸟	鸟 (鳥) as used in the Chinese language refers to a birdie.	鳥incorporates both chicken and bird, which depends on the context.
25.  侍	侍  means to wait upon; to serve in the Chinese language.	In Japanese, 侍 means a servant or samurai, which is a Japanese term, meaning a servant.
26.  暗算	scheme; to pilot against.	mental arithmetic in the Japanese language. Shochi et. al, (2006)
27.  人间	the human language or the ecosphere of individuals.	the personality; the character of human beings in general.
28.  风俗	a social tradition in literary Chinese.	the sex industry and social custom Xiang-Ian, (2004).
29.  天井	atrium or courtyard; patio in literally Chinese.	ceiling
30.  人参	ginseng.	carrot.
31.  文句	texting and wording in a given manuscript.	the complaint.
32.  研究生	a postgrad student; graduate student	the researcher or research student in Japanese.
33.  亲友	families and kinsfolks	a close friend in the Japanese language.

Category:Chinese characters tem]]