jack

Posted by Victor Mair

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72228&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-are-japanese-still-using-kanji

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72228

The Koreans and Vietnamese got rid of them within the last century, even the Chinese — for more than a century — seriously considered abolishing the sinographs, and have simplified them until they are but a pale remnant of what they used to be.  Moreover, after WWI, when — with the help of the American occupation — Japan had a real chance to switch to an alphabet, the Japanese, on the whole, still clung to the kanji.  This is not to mention that the first great novel in an East Asian language, The Tale of Genji (before 1021 AD), which has a stature in Japan similar to that= of Shakespeare in the United Kingdom (Sonja Arntzen), was written by Lady Murasaki in the phonetic hiragana syllabary (aka "women's writing").  

The fact that the Japanese still have not abandoned the archaic morphosyllabic / logographic script is a conundrum that has puzzled me since I first learned Chinese and Japanese more than half a century ago.  Such a fundamental question about the history of East Asian writing is one that could scarcely escape the attention of rishika Julesy.  Here is her video about this thorny matter, "Why Kanji Survived in Japan (But Not in Korea or Vietnam)" (22:25).  I am confident that, as always, she will have something enlightening to say about this perplexing subject.

Well, this was the longest and arguably the most challenging video for Julesy to make, but, as usual (always?), she nails it.  In the first part of her presentation, Julesy dives deep into the linguistic and practical side of the problem. In the second (relatively shorter) part of the presentation, she looks at the cultural and emotional aspects of the three countries'  (Vietnam, Korea, and Japan) attachment to sinographs.

As usual, Julesy inevitably says something near the end that I disagree with.  In this case, she faintly suggests that it might be nice if Korea and Vietnam welcomed back some of the sinographs so they could better understand the background of many common words in their languages.  I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that will happen — unless China resubjugates Vietnam and Korea.  In the current global order and economy, that doesn't seem very likely either.

One biggie that Julesy has yet to tackle, but is related to several of her previous investigations, including this one, is how English has factored in East Asian language development during the past century and more.  Knowing Julesy's scientific bent well enough not to expect her to predict the future, I'd be happy enough just to hear her analysis of what has already happened with English in East Asia during the last century and more.

Selected readings

• "'The insane effort to preserve this ancient script'" (10/2/25) — with Julesy bibliography
• "Yet another sinographic stumbling block for Chinese modernization" (11/13/25)
• "Character amnesia and kanji attachment" (2/24/16)
• "The Heisig method for learning sinographs" (8/17/25)
• "Japanese survey on forgetting how to write kanji" (9/24/12) — with long bibliography
• "More katakana, fewer kanji" (4/4/16)

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72228&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-are-japanese-still-using-kanji

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72228