BEST wishes and blessings for those about to do HSC or other exams !
A Gwailo's View of Han Zi ! A Blog featuring my experiments with Han Zi and digital typographic art and articles on Chinese derived characters. Also some articles on Chinese characters in general and their use of multiple Asian languages.
Showing posts with label kanji. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kanji. Show all posts
Saturday, 6 November 2021
Thursday, 20 May 2021
The Four Seasons
I'm just bumping and reposting an older work in the hope someone will comment on it?
#kanji #hanzi #technozi #typography #inkscape
Do you think the colors gradients filters and textures I added reflect the character of the four seasons?
Monday, 19 October 2020
Monday, 3 February 2020
SHU and Nezumi - A story of small animals
#yearoftherat #nezumi #radical208 # kanji #hanzi
SHU and Nezumi - A story of small animals
Radical 208 translated as Rat or Mouse is also used to refer to several other species of rodents and insectivores too hence my use of the rainbow filter to reflect this diversity.
This may tell us something about cultural change in ancient China when writing systems were first developed and also that despite legends that Hanzi have changed over the centuries.
Just as some words written with radical 153 also appear written with the dog radical so likewise some animals with names written using SHU also appear with dog used instead.
There are 2 main reasons I can think of for this
Firstly the Dog radical has LESS Strokes - easier to memorize and write
Secondly a change of attitudes towards animals.
With growing urbanization small mammals that might compete with farmers seen as a group of pests.
Squirrels have a Chinese name meaning pine rat songshu
Voles are field rats tianshu
Shrews which are insect are qu with shu as the radical for their character.
Diao (pine) martens have dual forms
Weasels lingyou or qingyou called itachi in Japanese retain their own kanji
Oddly Moles have a hanzi of their own but in SinoJapanese the word is written with 2 kanji.
What do all these have in common apart form being small mammals?
They would mostly be seen as plant eating nuisances or food or fur sources by early farmers.
Squirrel fur can be used for brushes and winter hats.
Voles water or field do look like rats or mice if you only spot them briefly.
Pine martens are small predators also used for fur.
Weasels will try to raid poultry pens.
Moles digging runs can disrupt the planting and plowing of wheat and cereal crops and gardens.
However my first suggestion is probably the most likely though bearing in mind that Chinese has a semantic classifier system classifying animals as large predators dog and dog like, big cat/ tiger, medium size predators, badgers leopards etc, a third category for other small mammals makes sense?
If you have only seen these names listed under the dog radical do check out the entries under radical 208 in various web and print dictionaries.
SHU and Nezumi - A story of small animals
Radical 208 translated as Rat or Mouse is also used to refer to several other species of rodents and insectivores too hence my use of the rainbow filter to reflect this diversity.
This may tell us something about cultural change in ancient China when writing systems were first developed and also that despite legends that Hanzi have changed over the centuries.
Just as some words written with radical 153 also appear written with the dog radical so likewise some animals with names written using SHU also appear with dog used instead.
There are 2 main reasons I can think of for this
Firstly the Dog radical has LESS Strokes - easier to memorize and write
Secondly a change of attitudes towards animals.
With growing urbanization small mammals that might compete with farmers seen as a group of pests.
Squirrels have a Chinese name meaning pine rat songshu
Voles are field rats tianshu
Shrews which are insect are qu with shu as the radical for their character.
Diao (pine) martens have dual forms
Weasels lingyou or qingyou called itachi in Japanese retain their own kanji
Oddly Moles have a hanzi of their own but in SinoJapanese the word is written with 2 kanji.
What do all these have in common apart form being small mammals?
They would mostly be seen as plant eating nuisances or food or fur sources by early farmers.
Squirrel fur can be used for brushes and winter hats.
Voles water or field do look like rats or mice if you only spot them briefly.
Pine martens are small predators also used for fur.
Weasels will try to raid poultry pens.
Moles digging runs can disrupt the planting and plowing of wheat and cereal crops and gardens.
However my first suggestion is probably the most likely though bearing in mind that Chinese has a semantic classifier system classifying animals as large predators dog and dog like, big cat/ tiger, medium size predators, badgers leopards etc, a third category for other small mammals makes sense?
If you have only seen these names listed under the dog radical do check out the entries under radical 208 in various web and print dictionaries.
Sunday, 21 July 2019
Orange Technozi
You may remeber I blogged last year on #orange the fruit and the hanzi used to write the word.
I have a new RED BUBBLE design that I'ld appreciate your support of even if its just a RT or other share
Please consider a visit and do feedback? I want your comments as I'm currently (july 2019) stuck in or rather on bed with a bad ankle sprain ...
I have a new RED BUBBLE design that I'ld appreciate your support of even if its just a RT or other share
Please consider a visit and do feedback? I want your comments as I'm currently (july 2019) stuck in or rather on bed with a bad ankle sprain ...
Saturday, 24 November 2018
Momiji
#Momiji #kanji #kokuji
The word MOMIJI meaning Autumn Foliage can be written with several combinations of Kanji and Kana in Japanese.
Most commonly it is written as a combination of 2 kanji meaning "red leaves" but also as a "kokuji NOT found in all dictionaries. I'm surprised Nelson does not include it when it does include other kokuji!
Kokuji are characters created n Japan and not used in China with a couple of exceptions that actually got borrowed back into Chinese.
Momiji sometimes gets translated as "maple" but can be used to describe autumn foliage and colros in general. Part of the reason for this seems to be the popularity of the Japanese "maple" Acer palmatum also known as KAEDE in art and probably some idiot who was not a botanist thinking oh maple tree!
Another example of this is the character FENG or FU Kaede used by both the Chinese and Japanese being translated as "maple" however the Chinese maple is what we call Liquidambar a tree with leaves and autumn coloring very similar to a maple!
The word MOMIJI meaning Autumn Foliage can be written with several combinations of Kanji and Kana in Japanese.
Most commonly it is written as a combination of 2 kanji meaning "red leaves" but also as a "kokuji NOT found in all dictionaries. I'm surprised Nelson does not include it when it does include other kokuji!
Kokuji are characters created n Japan and not used in China with a couple of exceptions that actually got borrowed back into Chinese.
Momiji sometimes gets translated as "maple" but can be used to describe autumn foliage and colros in general. Part of the reason for this seems to be the popularity of the Japanese "maple" Acer palmatum also known as KAEDE in art and probably some idiot who was not a botanist thinking oh maple tree!
Another example of this is the character FENG or FU Kaede used by both the Chinese and Japanese being translated as "maple" however the Chinese maple is what we call Liquidambar a tree with leaves and autumn coloring very similar to a maple!
Send me feedback folks if you would rather download this in its full original size from DeviantArt or Patreon ? I'm happy to share it as a freebie if you're using it for educational purposes!
Sunday, 18 November 2018
FOUR PURPLE HANZI and KANJI
Its Jacaranda time in Sydney but Jacaranda is not an Asian Plant.
Its actually an import from South America and yes it is very gorgeously purple an intense hue either dark or light and yes it looks like purple clouds when the trees are blossoming!
So I'm thinking about PURPLE when I look out my window as there are some magnificent trees nearby.
Also I'm thinking about #hanzi and #kanji
The primary word and character for the color purple in East Asian languages that use Sinitic characters or have loan words is surely
Its actually an import from South America and yes it is very gorgeously purple an intense hue either dark or light and yes it looks like purple clouds when the trees are blossoming!
So I'm thinking about PURPLE when I look out my window as there are some magnificent trees nearby.
Also I'm thinking about #hanzi and #kanji
The primary word and character for the color purple in East Asian languages that use Sinitic characters or have loan words is surely
however there are a copy of other words
and also
finally Japanese poetry often mentions this plant with purple blossoms
If you k ow of other words for purple please contribute via the comments box.
Wednesday, 10 October 2018
Asian Inktober - INK
Its #Inktober and what would East Asian paintng and calligraphy without #INK
So as an educational tie-in the a #technozi on INK
So as an educational tie-in the a #technozi on INK
 |
| Copyright J. Vaux 2018 You can copy and share for educational purposes though |
Wednesday, 8 August 2018
Tachibana "Orange"
Tachibana Orange
#tachibana #citrus #orange #kitsu #mandarin
#tachibana #citrus #orange #kitsu #mandarin
Modern #Chinese uses this #hanzi to describe Tangerines and Oranges and Mandarins and probably just small oranges in earlier time?
In #Japanese though the #kanji is Tachibana a subspecies of Citrus.
However in Vietnam if I can trust my dictionaries the archaic form *gwuit developed a semantic split with one word used to describe the citrus fruit we call kumquats and the other pronunciation for mandarin oranges.
Part of the reason are this is the quest for a small edible sweet orange.
Citrus growers in China and Japan hybridised varieties to create the range of fruits we have today.
Apparently the native Tachibana "mandarin" / orange was grown for its peel and flowers with the peel and rind used for medicines and the flowers for their scent.
I will be sharing some poems about the scent of orange blossom in the next posts.
Sunday, 5 August 2018
Wednesday, 1 August 2018
Xia Summer
XIA SUMMER
#xia #summer #hanzi #kanji, #inkscape, #unihan, #technozi,
#xia #summer #hanzi #kanji, #inkscape, #unihan, #technozi,
This is two objects overlapping one a lower layer and slightly larger and the top with filters added.
Sunday, 24 June 2018
QING BLUE Technozi
#technozi #hanzi #kanji qing blue
While this is usually read as GREEN in Modern Chinese it also means blue and sometimes means blue black hair or fibre which is why specialists refere to it as meaning the Color of Living Things
I am not absolutely certain about the SinoKorean and Koerean reading.
Bear in mind the final N in MIn dialects can be a nasalized vowel
The double hh represents an aspiration
SinoJapanese I type a double oo to show a long vowel in case a reader has an older computer not fully Unicode compliant
I have given this character a green outline to represent the double meaning.
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
WOLF TECHNOZI
#wolf #unihan #unicode #technozi #asianlanguages #chinese #japanese #hanzi #kanji
I'll be putting up a special technozi on Patreon with a wolf theme hopefully this weekend !
Saturday, 21 April 2018
FOX TECHNOZI
Next Sequence for the Year of the Dog #FOXES #FOX
Starting with this revised #technozi #hanzi #kanji #hanja #unihan
Starting with this revised #technozi #hanzi #kanji #hanja #unihan
An FULL COLOR Reward will be posted on my Patreon based on this character !
Sunday, 25 March 2018
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Basic Strokes of Characters
#chinescharacters #hanzi #kanji #chinesecalligraphy
Whether you use a brush with ink a fet-ltip pen with a brush or square or narrow tip or whatever you use to write sinitic derived characters s in whatever form you need to know and practise basic strokes.
I suspect there are ten year olds who have better calligraphy than me even in kaishu however here's something tp use. Yes there are a lot of basic strokes graphics out there online.
In defence of this graphic I want to point out I used filters that create a shadow because I want to emphasize the "weight" of the stroke and that these characters can be used with colors other than black and with materials that are not ink on paper or pixels on a screen.
Whether you use a brush with ink a fet-ltip pen with a brush or square or narrow tip or whatever you use to write sinitic derived characters s in whatever form you need to know and practise basic strokes.
I suspect there are ten year olds who have better calligraphy than me even in kaishu however here's something tp use. Yes there are a lot of basic strokes graphics out there online.
In defence of this graphic I want to point out I used filters that create a shadow because I want to emphasize the "weight" of the stroke and that these characters can be used with colors other than black and with materials that are not ink on paper or pixels on a screen.
Wednesday, 25 October 2017
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
#cherry #hanzi #kanji #asianlanguages
Despite it being winter in my area a couple of local cherry trees are blooming in my area so
Despite it being winter in my area a couple of local cherry trees are blooming in my area so
 |
Copyright Julie Vaux 2017 You are welcome to share this for educational purposes but please include a link back to my blog and a note that this diagram is copyright to me since sometime in the future I plan to compile these technozi into a book |
Saturday, 15 April 2017
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Cockatoo WU
 |
| Copyright Julie Vaux 2017 |
Would you like to see some of my techozi may available as a pdf ebook on Patreon or elsewhere?
Please let me know?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)