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Ok, so I’m in season 3, and the kanji is coming along ok – not as intimidating as before I began anyway.
I can see how it works when kanji are combined to make a word; e.g. woman+child=girl.But, do more than two kanji ever get combined to make a word?
If so, how many can be strung to make one word? How complicated can it get?!鬱 is the 常用漢字 with the most strokes, and is build of many primitives.
edit: didn’t read the question properly the first time…
So to answer your actual question. Yes, words will start to be made up of more than 2 kanji. From my experience with a vocab of around 1000~words I would say 2 & 1 kanji for a word is the most common, but you will definitely see words with more kanji. The words with the most kanji are combined nouns. The only one I can think of right now is 年度学位記授与式 because I saw it today ^^.-
This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by
マーク・ウェーバー.
Kanji compounds generally aren’t too bad, since a lot of them make sense and are short (like you said). However, not all 熟語 (kanji compound words) are that kind. It isn’t uncommon for a word to be made up of 3+ kanji. For an obvious example, 日本語 (Japanese). I have no idea what the longest example would be though, I’m afraid.
Well, for one thing, you’ve got 四字熟語, four-kanji compounds that make up certain idioms, like ‘tooting your own horn’, ‘two birds with one stone’ etc.
Other that those, all I can really think of right now is the word for a vending machine, which is 自動販売機.
Also note that while a word can be made up of many kanji, a lot of the time (I’ve noticed anyway), it’s just a compound word or has a suffix or something. Like 「日本語」 – it’s just 日本 with the “language” suffix 語. Or 「常用漢字」- it’s just the two words 常用 and 漢字 put together, so while it’s 4 kanji in a row, it’s not really all that difficult.
Yeah, most of the longer one’s are just compounds. I would only consider them single words in the same sense that “automated external defibrillator” or “international revenue service” are single words.
Try this one for size: 朝鮮民主主義人民共和国 (ちょうせんみんしゅしゅぎじんみんきょうわこく)
The formal name of North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). I can’t help but like just how complicated and impressive it looks/sounds. XD
But yes, like Kyle said, it’s not technically a “word” in the same way as the English name would not be a word, but rather a collection of several words (and/or prefixes and suffixes where applicable).
One four-character combo known to any true anime fan (=P) is 錬金術師 (れんきんじゅつし) – alchemist. Yeah, strictly speaking it’s a three-character word (錬金術 alchemy) with a one-character suffix (師 master) but it’s still four characters. Plus, it sounds cool. =)
鬱 is the 常用漢字 with the most strokes, and is build of many primitives.
鸞 has one more stroke, and I’m pretty sure it’s a Joyo kanji too.
Try this one for size:
Ooo, ooo: 東北地方太平洋沖地震. Tohoku Region off-the-Pacific-coast Earthquake.
Nope it ain’t joyo – or else I would know it :p
Thanks all, it has been enlightening.
@マーク・ウェーバー – DNF maestro!!
直角二等辺三角形 – right-angled isosceles triangle
警察官！ – police!
降霊術!
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This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by
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