[Scifience]

さゆりちゃん、愛してるよ！ would be "I love you, Sayuri!"
さゆりが大好きだよ！ would be "I love Sayuri"
ちゃん is an honorific often used toward a lover or small children, but something else could obviously be used here instead.

However, usually just 愛してる or 大好きだよ is sufficient, since the subject is often (practically always) omitted in Japanese, and if you are talking to someone, they will know that your statement is directed at them.

Hope that is helpful!

Edit: Damn vBulletin, messing up the order on the posts...

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by Scifience 

さゆりちゃん、愛してるよ！ would be "I love you, Sayuri!"
さゆりが大好きだよ！ would be "I love Sayuri"
ちゃん is an honorific often used toward a lover or small children, but something else could obviously be used here instead.

However, usually just 愛してる or 大好きだよ is sufficient, since the subject is often (practically always) omitted in Japanese, and if you are talking to someone, they will know that your statement is directed at them.

Hope that is helpful!

Edit: Damn vBulletin, messing up the order on the posts...

Ha! I was a bit surprise to see a response before my post!

All of that is helpful except for one thing - I'm looking to spell it with the English character set.

[Jim Paradise]

I've looked up how to say "I love you" in Japanese, but I'm not sure how to add a person's name into the phrase. If I wanted to write something like, "I love you, Sally," what would be the correct way to write it? (In this case, I'd be using 'Aishiteru' instead of some of the other means of saying I love you.)

[JohnM15141]

Aishiteruyo! Sally

Originally Posted by Jim Paradise 

I've looked up how to say "I love you" in Japanese, but I'm not sure how to add a person's name into the phrase. If I wanted to write something like, "I love you, Sally," what would be the correct way to write it? (In this case, I'd be using 'Aishiteru' instead of some of the other means of saying I love you.)

[Chuckit]

I may be wrong, but I don't believe "aishiteru" is really said that often by actual Japanese people, particularly compared to the English equivalent. I'm not a native speaker, but this is my impression from the Japanese people I know.

[JohnM15141]

Its true, native japanese don't throw the phrase around as casually as americans do, Japanese will say it it when they are serious but generally will not say it where they they can be overheard by some one else, hence, it seems like they don't say it. Japanese are generally shy and reserved with their feelings. Anyone who says it in earshot are looked upon as some kind of playboy or wild guy, and the nice girls will stear clear.

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

I may be wrong, but I don't believe "aishiteru" is really said that often by actual Japanese people, particularly compared to the English equivalent. I'm not a native speaker, but this is my impression from the Japanese people I know.

[Scifience]

Originally Posted by Jim Paradise 

Ha! I was a bit surprise to see a response before my post!

All of that is helpful except for one thing - I'm looking to spell it with the English character set.

Sayuri-chan, aishiteru yo!
and
Sayuri-chan ga daisuki da yo!

are the two things I wrote in Japanese characters.

As JohnM15141 mentioned, the phrase is used quite a bit differently in Japan than it is in America. I didn't mention that at first since you didn't specifically ask about the cultural aspects of it, but his explanation is right on. Though I have heard of cases from friends where a girlfriend has never said the phrase in months or even years...

[OreoCookie]

What exactly is your question?
BTW, just a few comments: Japanese men don't say `I love you.' Older Japanese women were lucky if they heard that phrase more than a few times in their lives. AFAIK daisuki da is the phrase that Japanese men might actually use.

Also, Japanese wives call their husbands `Master' (go-shujin)

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by Scifience 

Sayuri-chan, aishiteru yo!
and
Sayuri-chan ga daisuki da yo!

are the two things I wrote in Japanese characters.

As JohnM15141 mentioned, the phrase is used quite a bit differently in Japan than it is in America. I didn't mention that at first since you didn't specifically ask about the cultural aspects of it, but his explanation is right on. Though I have heard of cases from friends where a girlfriend has never said the phrase in months or even years...

I ended up reading about the cultural background of it while trying to find out how to say it on various websites, but in this case it's not a worry (my ladylove was born/raised in Canada, and we're quite open about our feelings). The reason I wanted to know is that I'm getting her a video iPod soon, and wanted to have "I love you" written in Japanese on the back of it since she'd enjoy it. She suggested aishiteruyo, which I'll likely use, but thank you very much for the romanji spellings and punctuation!

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Also, Japanese wives call their husbands `Master' (go-shujin)

I don't think that'd go over so well with her.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Jim Paradise 

I don't think that'd go over so well with her.

It seems to work for them … 

[Scifience]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Also, Japanese wives call their husbands `Master' (go-shujin)

Actually, that's slightly wrong AFAIK: wives refer to their own husbands as 主人 (shujin), dropping the honorific. When talking about someone else's husband, ご主人 (goshujin), with the honorific, is used.

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

It seems to work for them … 

I'd be liable to get a swift boot in the bottom if I asked her to call me that on a daily basis.

[JohnM15141]

daisuki da just means more like "I like you" which is the words you choose if you really don't love someone, and would be a disappointment to someone who thought you did. However in casual situations where they may be over heard you would probably hear "daisuki da" but in private (even in front of their children) you would not hear the very deep meaning I love you, but it is used.

"Go shujin" is used while chatting with other wives in a causal joking way. Men generally don't use it (perhaps 200 years ago) its more of a polite word then with any real emotion. Go Shujin - sama makes it more formal like say hello to your "Go Shujin-sama" in a polite but friendly way from a friend saying "say hello to your husband?"

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

What exactly is your question?
BTW, just a few comments: Japanese men don't say `I love you.' Older Japanese women were lucky if they heard that phrase more than a few times in their lives. AFAIK daisuki da is the phrase that Japanese men might actually use.

Also, Japanese wives call their husbands `Master' (go-shujin)

[OreoCookie]

Go-shujin is used, an ex-gf of a good friend of mine addressed him that way. However, she came from a bushi family, so this might have something to do with it and I'd expect her to be more old-fashioned. I haven't heard my ex gf's mother use go-shujin towards her husband, though, but since she is Mexican, I'm not sure whether is due to this and she doesn't use it at all towards him or whether it's something she says in private. I suspect the former. However, I've seen cases where it has been used (jokingly) by the husband himself …

One of my Japanese sensei (he is in his mid-50s) claimed that he does use daisuki (da) towards his wife and that he doesn't use aishiteru at all. According to him, Japanese men of his age have a problem saying `I love you.' I think your comment stems from something else: Japanese language is very situational. One of my favorite examples is anata (you). It can range from an insult to something very, very endearing. E. g. once one of my Japanese teachers told me `anata, kiite!' (Hey you, listen! Japanese try to avoid using `you' if they know your name), but if you say anata to your lover, it is a very endearing term (also since it is a contrast to the usual kimi).

[icruise]

I'd be pretty surprised if I heard someone call their own husband go-shujin. It would be like adding "-san" to your own name.

[wataru]

主人 (shujin) is not the only word for husband. There is also 旦那 (danna) (+san for someone else's husband), 夫 (otto), etc.

"Master" is ご主人様 (goshujin-sama). Note the sama. Most people would not append the sama in casual conversation. When referring to one's own husband, people tend to say うちの旦那 (uchi no danna) or うちの主人 (uchi no shujin).

Couples with children also often refer to each other from the children's point of view, calling each other お父さん (otōsan, father) and お母さん (okāsan, mother). Once children enter the picture, parents' roles become more-or-less defined by their obligations to their children, as opposed to feelings of love for each other.

愛してる (ai shiteru) is a phrase that has been popularized only in the last few decades, mostly through western influence.

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by Scifience 

Sayuri-chan, aishiteru yo!
and
Sayuri-chan ga daisuki da yo!

are the two things I wrote in Japanese characters.

Sorry to continue on, but is there normally a space between aishiteru and yo, or is it proper to spell them together in romaji?

[icruise]

I'd put a space in between just for clarity. There are different schools of thought about this kind of thing, of course.

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by icruise 

I'd put a space in between just for clarity. There are different schools of thought about this kind of thing, of course.

From scrounging the net, that's what I had thought. Thanks again.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Jim Paradise 

Sorry to continue on, but is there normally a space between aishiteru and yo, or is it proper to spell them together in romaji?

There are no spaces in Japanese (unless you have to spell a word imported from the West), so in written text, there are no spaces. `Yo' is a particle which puts emphasis on what you want to say, so it is easier for us to add spaces

The proper way to write this is either hiragana (as ai is the indigenous reading) or hiragana and kanji. Also, it makes a difference whether her name is spelled with kanji or hiragana (which is an option, too).

[Scifience]

Originally Posted by Jim Paradise 

Sorry to continue on, but is there normally a space between aishiteru and yo, or is it proper to spell them together in romaji?

Technically, it isn't proper to write in romaji at all. :-P

Romaji vary wildly depending on who is writing them, though. I tend to put in spaces, because roman characters all jumbled together just don't seem to look right to me. Others, though, run particles and other things together. I've yet to see anyone just stick a whole sentence in romaji without any spaces, though.

In addition, I have also seen written in romaji: Huzi-san (Fuji-san), simasita (shimashita), etc. I gave up on romaji long ago due to these inconsistencies...

[icruise]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

There are no spaces in Japanese (unless you have to spell a word imported from the West), so in written text, there are no spaces. `Yo' is a particle which puts emphasis on what you want to say, so it is easier for us to add spaces

The proper way to write this is either hiragana (as ai is the indigenous reading) or hiragana and kanji. Also, it makes a difference whether her name is spelled with kanji or hiragana (which is an option, too).

I think everyone realizes that the "proper" way to write Japanese is, you know, in Japanese, but that wasn't what he was asking about.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by icruise 

I think everyone realizes that the "proper" way to write Japanese is, you know, in Japanese, but that wasn't what he was asking about.

Yeah, obviously … I guess there are too many formulas buzzing in my head at the moment

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

There are no spaces in Japanese (unless you have to spell a word imported from the West), so in written text, there are no spaces. `Yo' is a particle which puts emphasis on what you want to say, so it is easier for us to add spaces

The proper way to write this is either hiragana (as ai is the indigenous reading) or hiragana and kanji. Also, it makes a difference whether her name is spelled with kanji or hiragana (which is an option, too).

Yeah, it had been pointed out to me by my girlfriend that normally there would be no spaces. I would use the Japanese character set if I could, but unfourtunately Apple Canada won't let me use that on the back of an iPod. That's why I've had to ask for a romaji spelling.

This is somewhat off-topic, but I'm hoping to pursue my Masters in Japan next year in the fall. In the meantime I plan to learn some Japanese through a combination of getting a tutor/help from my girlfriend, but would any of you have any recommendations for a good book(s) to begin learning Japanese?

[Scifience]

Originally Posted by Jim Paradise 

This is somewhat off-topic, but I'm hoping to pursue my Masters in Japan next year in the fall. In the meantime I plan to learn some Japanese through a combination of getting a tutor/help from my girlfriend, but would any of you have any recommendations for a good book(s) to begin learning Japanese?

At the beginner-intermediate level, I used a series called Minna no Nihongo (Japanese for Everyone). There are two books main books, a book that provides English translations, a set of audio CDs, and a variety of other books for additional reading practice, kanji practice, etc. I found it to be a fairly good series, though it was not without faults and oddities and is not a purely beginner-level text (it assumes you already know some of the basics and can read hiragana/katakana).

I've also heard good things about Genki, which is a series published by the Japan Times, but I don't have any personal experience with it beyond skimming it in a bookstore one time.

When you're ready for intermediate-advanced level books, ask me again, as I'll have a more comprehensive set of recommendations for you

[icruise]

Originally Posted by Jim Paradise 

This is somewhat off-topic, but I'm hoping to pursue my Masters in Japan next year in the fall. In the meantime I plan to learn some Japanese through a combination of getting a tutor/help from my girlfriend, but would any of you have any recommendations for a good book(s) to begin learning Japanese?

Not to be a wet blanket, but are you talking about getting a Masters degree at a Japanese university? Many people study Japanese for the better part of a decade and still can't take coursework in Japanese, so trying to prepare in a year seems impossible. Unless you're talking about doing coursework in English and you just want to brush up on the Japanese you'll need to live there?

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Not to be a wet blanket, but are you talking about getting a Masters degree at a Japanese university? Many people study Japanese for the better part of a decade and still can't take coursework in Japanese, so trying to prepare in a year seems impossible. Unless you're talking about doing coursework in English and you just want to brush up on the Japanese you'll need to live there?

Well, I'm hoping that I can do courses in English, but it's the access to government/business archives that I'm more so in want of. As of yet I haven't decided where to study, although a professor of mine has given me quite a list of universities (from London, Australia, China, Singapore, and Japan) to consider. The main point would be for easy of access to research resources and immersion in the culture.

*edit* But yes, learning Japanese would be really so that I could get by in day to day life.

[OreoCookie]

Well, if you are serious about Japan, I recommend that you eventually try to get the monbushô scholarship. They offer Japanese courses to train you. Train you hard. I've heard, they're tough, very tough. But after that, you really can get by with your Japanese. You may want to bridge the time with another scholarship, e. g. NUPACE in Nagoya which offers excellent Japanese courses (they have their own book series and course material). Some other universities offer similar programs, though.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

The proper way to write this is either hiragana (as ai is the indigenous reading)

Interesting how it’s considered indigenous enough to warrant being written in hiragana, when it’s actually just a loan word of an older stratum

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Interesting how it’s considered indigenous enough to warrant being written in hiragana, when it’s actually just a loan word of an older stratum

Much like half the modern English language (e.g., crisis, cherry, analyze), the old loanwords have been quite thoroughly assimilated and are no longer considered foreign.

[OreoCookie]

AFAIK you can write all kanji in hiragana as long as the Japanese reading is used. However, as soon as you need the On reading, you have to use kanji to be understood. Obviously this doesn't hold for compound kanji anymore. Also, kanji are inherently more beautiful and (eventually) easier to read

BTW, I actually find it equally interesting which words had to be imported from the West and what became of them after thorough Japanization: romantiku, consento (that's outlet for ya), brapi, … 

[Jim Paradise]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Well, if you are serious about Japan, I recommend that you eventually try to get the monbushô scholarship. They offer Japanese courses to train you. Train you hard. I've heard, they're tough, very tough. But after that, you really can get by with your Japanese. You may want to bridge the time with another scholarship, e. g. NUPACE in Nagoya which offers excellent Japanese courses (they have their own book series and course material). Some other universities offer similar programs, though.

I'll definitely look into this. Thank you for the advice.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Much like half the modern English language (e.g., crisis, cherry, analyze), the old loanwords have been quite thoroughly assimilated and are no longer considered foreign.

This is, of course, to be expected. Which is why I find the whole concept of Katakana, albeit very practical for students and those who don’t actually speak the language, to be somewhat—no, very—odd. It goes against the very nature of the development of languages.

I’m lazy, so I’m not going to go look on Wikipedia—when was Katakana ‘invented’? Along with Hiragana, or later on? And was it originally meant as a marker of loan words, or were they just different styles (I seem to recall that Hiragana comes from the female style of Kanji used by woman earlier on, right? Was Katakana perhaps a male equivalent?)?

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

AFAIK you can write all kanji in hiragana as long as the Japanese reading is used. However, as soon as you need the On reading, you have to use kanji to be understood. Obviously this doesn't hold for compound kanji anymore.

You still use On readings (I’m assuming “On” refers to the Kan’on and the Go’on)? How does that work, exactly? I mean, obviously, some characters were borrowed with both sound, meaning, and form, so they only have On readings (if I’m understanding the concept rightly), but others have that bewildering plethora of possible pronunciations that makes Japanese seem such an unsurmountable task to set to, at least for me.

[analogika]

Virtually all Kanji have both On-yomi and Kun-yomi.

On-yomi is how characters were imported and BOTH meanings (in fixed terms) and readings became Japanized (the way many Latin or French terms have been anglicized).

Kun-yomi is where the kanji's meaning was appropriated to the Japanese language, and usually augmented with tagged-on hiragana for conjugation (which doesn't happen in Chinese).

Often, Kanji terms will have tiny hiragana written alongside to clarify pronounciation of the term.

It's fun to be on a road-trip with a Japanese who's never been to the area, as often he'll ask for directions to a certain city, earning a blank stare, until he "writes out" the Kanji on his palm, at which point Great Understanding ensues.

Example: 大阪 can be read "Ou-saka" or just as easily "Dai-han". Go figure.

[analogika]

Actually, just reading over the wikipedia page on Kanji, it seems there are a couple of hundred Kanji that evolved in Japan, and which thus have only kun-yomi (with, again, a few exceptions).

[Oisín]

Yeah, there are a lot of Kanji that I don’t recognise at all, and that my computer dictionary has as “Japanese: [meaning]”. Some of them are simplifications of earlier characters, similar to Mainland Standard Mandarin, just simplified in different ways; but others are characters that absolutely have no Chinese equivalents.

On-yomi is how characters were imported and BOTH meanings (in fixed terms) and readings became Japanized (the way many Latin or French terms have been anglicized).

Kun-yomi is where the kanji's meaning was appropriated to the Japanese language, and usually augmented with tagged-on hiragana for conjugation (which doesn't happen in Chinese).

...

Example: 大阪 can be read "Ou-saka" or just as easily "Dai-han". Go figure.

Where Ōsaka is the Kun-yumi and Daihan is the On-yumi, right? (It’s Dàbǎn in Chinese)

What I’m wondering, then, is this: On readings of characters would mostly occur in compound words, right? Or is 大 on its own equally likely to be pronounced ō as dai? And if so, how does one know which one to go by (in non-compounds)?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Yeah, there are a lot of Kanji that I don’t recognise at all, and that my computer dictionary has as “Japanese: [meaning]”. Some of them are simplifications of earlier characters, similar to Mainland Standard Mandarin, just simplified in different ways; but others are characters that absolutely have no Chinese equivalents.

Note that there aren't many of these in current use - and IIRC, an awful lot of traditional Chinese characters were completely castrated and "simplified" on the mainland during the cultural revolution

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Where Ōsaka is the Kun-yumi and Daihan is the On-yumi, right? (It’s Dàbǎn in Chinese)

Correct.

Originally Posted by Oisín 

What I’m wondering, then, is this: On readings of characters would mostly occur in compound words, right? Or is 大 on its own equally likely to be pronounced ō as dai? And if so, how does one know which one to go by (in non-compounds)?

It doesn't occur on its own. If it were on its own, it would usually be 大きい (Oo-ki-i, meaning "big"), or 大きな (Ookina, "big" if directly adjacent to the object it describes).

So, in non-compounds, it is almost always the Japanese reading.

In compounds, and especially proper names, you have no way of knowing except through the little furigana (miniature hiragana indicating pronounciation).

And apparently, the fact that many Kanji have multiple on-yomi is a result of their having been re-imported with texts from different regions in China at different times and, presumably, different Chinese languages/dialects.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

This is, of course, to be expected. Which is why I find the whole concept of Katakana, albeit very practical for students and those who don’t actually speak the language, to be somewhat—no, very—odd. It goes against the very nature of the development of languages.

I'd say katakana is most equivalent to Italic script in English. Formally, it's mainly used for foreign words, but it's also used less formally for emphasis and style. It's also often used for some native words, mainly onomatopoeia and some animal names.

Originally Posted by Oisín 

I’m lazy, so I’m not going to go look on Wikipedia—when was Katakana ‘invented’? Along with Hiragana, or later on? And was it originally meant as a marker of loan words, or were they just different styles (I seem to recall that Hiragana comes from the female style of Kanji used by woman earlier on, right? Was Katakana perhaps a male equivalent?)?

Katakana and hiragana were invented around the same time, both as shorthand forms of kanji. If I recall correctly, katakana was used mainly by Buddhist monks. At the time, all Japanese writing was done using kanji — the modern writing system was ages away — and both the kana syllabaries evolved from abbreviated cursive kanji.

Originally Posted by Oisín 

You still use On readings (I’m assuming “On” refers to the Kan’on and the Go’on)? How does that work, exactly? I mean, obviously, some characters were borrowed with both sound, meaning, and form, so they only have On readings (if I’m understanding the concept rightly), but others have that bewildering plethora of possible pronunciations that makes Japanese seem such an unsurmountable task to set to, at least for me.

As an extremely broad rule, onyomi (a Chinese reading) is used to combine with other kanji and kunyomi (the native Japanese word) is used otherwise. Like I said, this is a very broad rule and a lot of words are unpronounceable without looking them up first. And often one reading will be associated with one sense of a character. For instance, the Chinese character for "big" is usually pronounced "dai" in any combination, such as daifan (big fan).

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by analogika

And apparently, the fact that many Kanji have multiple on-yomi is a result of their having been re-imported with texts from different regions in China at different times and, presumably, different Chinese languages/dialects.

Yup. At least two early strata of loan words are known: the Go’on (吴音) and the Kan’on (汉音). Go’on is the earlier form (if memory serves) and is based on a Southern Chinese dialect (吴 is, even in Modern Chinese, used to refer to the group of dialects to which Shanghainese belongs); Kan’on is the later form, based on a Northern Chinese dialect.

There are lots of Chinese characters that have multiple readings, too, but not usually quite as many as in Japanese. The most extreme example I can think of (among relatively common characters) is 着 (probably written 著 in Kanji, I’d imagine), which can be pronounced zhe, zháo, zhāo, zhuó, and zhù (the last of these is still written 著, all the others normally 着 in Mainland Chinese). And even in this case, three of them are only tone variations (zhe is the development of toneless zháo), so there’s really only zhao, zhuo, and zhu, not taking tones into account.

Originally Posted by analogika

Note that there aren't many of these in current use - and IIRC, an awful lot of traditional Chinese characters were completely castrated and "simplified" on the mainland during the cultural revolution

About 7,000 characters were simplified in 1956, through various means (the bulk of these were ‘simplified’ through a component, often the radical, being simplified in all characters where it was used, such as 貝 being simplified to 贝 or 見 to 见). These have mostly been left up until now. There have been a few additions and adjustments (one of them during the Cultural Revolution, but not really tied up with it too closely) since then, but the bulk remains the same.

Many of these simplifications are actually quite similar to Japanese ones (some of them were even based on Japanese ones), and reflect how everybody had been writing them for ages, anyway. Some of them were almost necessary, in a way: compare the simplified form 忧郁 (yōuyù, depressed) to the traditional form 憂鬱 and tell me the prospect of writing which one makes you feel more depressed.

They weren’t really ‘castrated’, though. They’re still characters in exactly the same way their traditional counterparts are; they just generally consist of fewer strokes, making them easier and faster to write. It’s exactly the same thing as the development of Hiragana and Katakana, but with less dramatic simplification.

[OreoCookie]

Japanese kanji can have countless readings and even well-educated Japanese sometimes don't know some of them. 一人 can be read ひとり, `hitori' (by yourself, one person) or if it's a name かずのと, `kazunoto', although few people would be able to read it. 東 has at least three readings (that I know), two kun-yomi, higashi and azuma, and one on-yomi, tou. In Japanese 101, they teach you: as soon as you see compound kanji, you have to use the on-yomi. In Japanese 102, they teach you that this is wrong

東山公園 is read higashi yama kou en (I added spaces to separate the readings for you). However, according to the 101 rule, it should be read as tou zan kou en (or tou san, although I suspect it has to be softened to zan).

I've also seen traditional Japanese characters (I've had many Taiwanese friends in Japan), their characters are pretty hard to write (by hand anyway). As analogika has pointed out, Japan has reformed its kanji after WW2 and the characters are much simpler now. The kanas were developed several hundred years ago (14th century?), so this is an entirely different development, though.

[Oisín]

What analogika was the Chinese simplification of the Kanji, which is similar, but not identical, to the Japanese one.

There’s nothing new about it, though: characters have been simplified (and, many times, also complexified, if that’s a word) all through their history. The Emperor of Qin unified the Chinese writing system around 200 BC, paving the way for the system used today (through various changes), but his system was in many ways a simplification, compared to many other writing systems of that time. Bopomofo, used in Taiwan now for transcription, is also a simplification of the characters, based on the Katakana system.

Also, I once had someone who knew Japanese (can’t remember if he was a native speaker or not) tell me that 生 has no less than 11 (eleven!) readings in total. That’s just ridiculous.

[Chuckit]

Just checked KanjiDic — 11 reading for that character is right. Flexible little bugger, isn't he?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Bopomofo

That's a great word.

I picture a biker dude who likes Chuck Berry.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Just checked KanjiDic — 11 reading for that character is right. Flexible little bugger, isn't he?

I’ll say! How anyone is supposed to actually use such a character properly in all practicality, beats me.

Originally Posted by analogika

That's a great word.

I picture a biker dude who likes Chuck Berry.

It’s named after the first four syllables in its ‘alphabet’: ㄅㄆㄇㄈ (bo po mo fo), based on the pattern of the word ‘alphabet’.

[wataru]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

I’ll say! How anyone is supposed to actually use such a character properly in all practicality, beats me.

It's called "context".

[analogika]

in combination with what's known as "rote memorization".

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by wataru 

It's called "context".

Exactly! Any character that requires that much context knowledge is simply too impractical. The same goes for, for instance, the ever-infamous ‘-ough’ combination in English. Rote memorisation can only get you so far. When you come to local place names or something similar, something that you’re not likely to have ever encountered before, even as a native speaker, the system breaks down. Not because place names have a tendency to have irregular or strange pronunciations compared to their spellings (Featherstonehaugh, anyone?), but because even if it’s pronounced completely regularly, you still have to know how to pronounce it beforehand, before you can pronounce it.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Exactly! Any character that requires that much context knowledge is simply too impractical.

Part of the problem is that characters stand for both words and related morphemes, and the same character often represents several verbs and adjectives centered around the same basic idea. For instance, that character means "to be born" like in Chinese, but it also means "to live" and "living," and it also stands for morphemes that carry these meanings in the middle of words. In practice, the character is (usually) not that hard to use because they know which word they are looking at from either the semantic or linguistic context.

[wataru]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Exactly! Any character that requires that much context knowledge is simply too impractical.

And yet somehow, the Japanese language and people still live on. Amazing, isn't it?

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's impractical.

How about those tens of thousands of Chinese characters? That sure sounds impractical if you ask me. But of course in practice, only a small subset are actually used with any frequency, and people get along just fine not knowing all of them. Just like the 11 pronunciations of 生--the overwhelming majority of the time it's the same couple pronunciations (which are easily distinguished by context and/or simple grammatical rules), and no one is inconvenienced by not knowing every last obscure reading.