Stumbled into a conversation about the idea of kanji phasing out from Japanese in an increasingly digital world, and it's weebs vs linguists.
Now, the important background here is that kanji is used in written Japanese to resolve the large number of homonyms in the language.
Now, the important background here is that kanji is used in written Japanese to resolve the large number of homonyms in the language.
Comments
Linguists – If kanji *is* phasing out (no overt signs that it is), then on a timeline of decades the written language will adapt to resolve spoken pitch accent in writing as many other languages have.
Weebs – never, Japanese is too powerful for diacritics.
Classic internet.
Reading One Piece made me genuinely sad at how many puns I knew I was missing because of only being able to read English.
Like it's at such a critical mass you can feel it in a weird way sometimes and pick it up just from context.
ITSNOTREALLYANYDIFFERENTTHANENGLISHNOTBEINGWRITTENINSCRIPTOCONTINUAASTHEANCIENTSDID
I would be sad if it did hypothetically go, for historical reasons, but it happens all the time
It's not real, Lyan.
But paradoxically, we can't embrace the IPA for written language, because regional accents would then mandate disagreements over spelling (more so than the English vs Yanklish differences the Anglosphere currently deals with…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvNxgHTWIlo&ab_channel=ProZD
(Except maybe technical texts that stick to very precise definitions; but not how people talk.)
When they shifted to Hangul-only writing, the spaces were needed to identify where one word ended and another began.
And then ditch katakana
ノンソツシ can go die in a fire
no n so tsu shi
All different sounds, all look too similar.
Yes, it is a skill issue I know, but I hate katakana lol. Hiragana are prettier.
“Which way is this little smiley face character leaning and what sound is it this time, help~”
(I also noticed that this pattern is also kinda there for no-me-nu in Katakana)
Though as a foreigner who's tried to learn Japanese, Kanji can die in a fire 🔥🔥
Katakana and hiragana were the problem solvers.
That being said, this doesn't sound far removed from the "romajii will replace Japanese writing" viewpoint.
Language sucks, and it's a natural desire to want to fix it. But you can't.
We can't even get people to follow the rules of uno.
Weebs™ and Gamers™ aren't even the broken clock that's right twice a day. They are the mental gymnastic quantum clock that is 100% wrong even on multifaceted grey areas...
Partly because it clarifies homonyms, and partly because it clearly differentiates key words from particles, verb endings, and all those confusing bits and bobs
like, it's so much harder to tell when a word begins and ends, not to mention the many words that have similar sounds but different kanji! Kanji exists for a reason!
Have yet to hear a Japanese person even mention the idea.
But honestly it tightens up sentences so much, and you can quickly identify topics and just read faster.
As per usual, the weebs are wrong
Totally see how that can be more expressive than emojis, how do they convey ideas? Like 私家燃 to convey that my house is burning?
So yeah, I’d love to know the name to better understand this topic!
https://youtu.be/GsyhGHUEt-k
https://youtu.be/4npuVmGxXuk?feature=shared
English, the famously frankensteined kit-bashed language where the rules are “we’re just making this up as we go along. Spelling? What spelling?”