Shinjitai
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Shinjitai (Japanese: 新字体, "new character form") are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in Simplified Chinese characters, but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification.
Shinjitai were created by reducing the number of strokes in kyūjitai ("old character form") or seiji (正字, "proper/correct characters"), which is unsimplified kanji (usually similar to Traditional Chinese characters). This simplification was achieved through a process (similar to that of simplified Chinese) of either replacing the onpu (音符, "sound mark") indicating the On reading with another onpu of the same On reading with fewer strokes, or replacing a complex component of a character with a simpler one.
There have been a few stages of simplifications made since the 1950s, but the only changes that became official were the changes in the Jōyō Kanji List in 1981 and 2010.[1]
Background[]
The following forms were established as a result of the postwar character reforms. However, they were not completely created anew, as many were based on widely used handwritten abbreviations (ryakuji, 略字) from the prewar era.[2] Due to the complexity of kanji, many abbreviations were used in handwriting, whose status rose to become official characters in the post-war reforms. Attention was paid to the aesthetic balance of the characters in their new form.[citation needed]
| Kyūjitai | → | Shinjitai | On'yomi | Kun'yomi | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鐵 | → | 鉄 | テツ tetsu | くろがね kurogane | (noun) iron |
| 與 | → | 与 | ヨ yo | あた(える) ata(eru) | (verb) give |
| 學 | → | 学 | ガク gaku | まな(ぶ) mana(bu) | (noun) study |
| 體 | → | 体 | タイ tai | からだ karada | (noun) body |
| 臺 | → | 台 | ダイ dai | (noun) pedestal | |
| 國 | → | 国 | コク koku | くに kuni | (noun) country, kingdom, nation |
| 關 | → | 関 | カン kan | せき seki | (noun) gate |
| 寫 | → | 写 | シャ sha | うつ(す) utsu(su) | (verb) copy |
| 廣 | → | 広 | コウ kō | ひろ(い) hiro(i) | (adjective) expansive, wide |
| 狀 | → | 状 | ジョウ jō | (noun) form | |
| 歸 | → | 帰 | キ ki | かえ(る) kae(ru) | (verb) return |
| 齒 | → | 歯 | シ shi | は ha | (noun) tooth |
| 步 | → | 歩 | ホ ho フ fu ブ bu |
ある(く) aru(ku) | (verb) walk |
| 圓 | → | 円 | エン en | まる(い) maru(i) | (noun) circle, Japanese yen; (adjective) round, circular |
In almost all cases, characters in the new standard have fewer strokes than old forms, though in a few cases they have the same number, and in a few other cases they have one more stroke. The most radical simplification was 廳→庁, removing 20 strokes. A complete list by stroke count reduction can be found at: [新字体はどこまで画数を減らしたか？](2004/10/16)
Unofficial simplifications[]
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The simplification in shinjitai were only officially applied to characters in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists, with the kyūjitai forms remaining the official forms of Hyōgaiji (表外字, characters not included in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists). For example, the character 擧 (KYO, agaru, ageru; raise [an example]) was simplified as 挙, but the character 欅 (keyaki; zelkova tree) which also contained 擧, remained unsimplified due to its status as a Hyōgaiji.
Despite this, simplified forms of hyōgaiji do exist in Japanese character sets, and are referred to as extended shinjitai (拡張新字体). However, they are to be seen as unofficial, a position reiterated in the National Language Council's 2000 report on Characters Not Listed in the Jōyō Kanji Table.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper is thorough in its simplification of hyōgaiji, and its in-house simplifications are called Asahi characters. For example, 痙攣 (KEIREN; cramp, spasm, convulsion) is simplified following the model of 經→経 and 攣→挛. This is also said to have been done because in the age of typewriter-based printing, more complicated kanji could not be clearly printed.
The Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) contain numerous simplified forms of Kanji following the model of the shinjitai simplifications, such as 﨔 (the simplified form of 欅); many of these are included in Unicode, but are not present in most kanji character sets.
Ryakuji for handwriting use, such as the abbreviations for 門 (in simplified Chinese, this abbreviation, 门, has become official) and 第 (which exists in Unicode as 㐧 [3]) are not a part of the shinjitai reforms and therefore do not carry official status.
Methods of simplifying Kanji[]
Adoption of grass script forms[]
Cursive script (also known as grass script) and semi-cursive script forms of kanji were adopted as shinjitai. Examples include:
Standardization and unification of character forms[]
Characters in which there were two or more variants were standardized under one form. The character 島 (TŌ, shima; island) also had the variant forms 嶋 (still seen in proper names) and 嶌, but only the 島 form became standard. The 辶 radical was previously printed with two dots (as in the hyōgaiji 逞) but was written with one (as in 道), so the written form with one dot became standard. The upper 丷 portion of the characters 半, 尊, and 平 was previously printed as 八 and written 丷 (as in the aforementioned examples), but the old printed form is still seen in the hyōgaiji characters 絆 and 鮃. The character 青 (SEI, SHŌ, ao; blue) was once printed as 靑 but written as 青, so the written form became standard; the old printed form is still found in the standard form in hyōgaiji characters such as 鯖 and 蜻, but 青 is used in some fonts.
Change of character indicating On reading[]
Characters of the keisei moji (形声文字) group each contain a semantic component and a phonetic component. A choice was made to replace the phonetic parts with homophones which had fewer strokes. For example, 圍 was changed to 囲, because 韋 and 井 were homophones.
Other simplifications of this method include 竊→窃, 廳→庁, 擔→担. There are also colloquial handwritten simplifications (otherwise known as ryakuji) based on this model, in which various non-kanji symbols are used as onpu, for example 魔 (MA; demon) [simplification: ⿸广マ, 广+マ {Katakana ma}], 慶 (KEI; jubilation) [⿸广K, 广+K], 藤 (TŌ, fuji; wisteria) [⿱艹ト, 艹+ト {Katakana to}], and 機 (KI; machine, opportunity) [⿰木キ, 木+キ {Katakana ki}].
Adoption of variant character[]
In some cases a standard character was replaced by a variant character that is neither a graphical variant nor shares an On reading, but had historical basis for standardisation. Examples include 證 → 証 and 燈 → 灯, replacing 登 → 正 and 登 → 丁 respectively. In both cases the variant character had a different meaning and reading but was adopted due to its fewer stroke count anyway.
Removal of components[]
Some kanji were simplified by removing entire components. For example,
Adding a stroke[]
In five basic cases and six derivations for a total of eleven cases, kanji were modified by adding a stroke, thereby rendering the composition more regular:
- 步→歩 (涉→渉, 頻→頻) – the bottom component becomes the common 少. However, the character 捗 was not modified (Compare with the section "Inconsistencies").
- 賓→賓 – similarly
- 卷→巻 (圈→圏) – the bottom becomes 己
- 綠→緑 (錄→録) – the top right becomes 彐
- 免 (勉, 晚→晩) – formerly the middle stroke was part of the lower left stroke, now these are separate, so the lower two strokes form the common 儿
- 卑 (碑) – formerly the small stroke at upper left of 十 was part of the vertical stroke in 田, but now it is a separate stroke.
Inconsistencies[]
Simplification was not carried out uniformly. Firstly, only a select group of characters (the common jōyō kanji) was simplified, with characters outside this group (the hyōgaiji) generally retaining their earlier form. For example, 賣, 續 and 讀 (with the right-side element in the latter two not being identical, but merely graphically similar) were simplified as 売, 続, and 読, respectively, but the hyōgaiji 贖, 犢 and 牘, which contain the same element ( WIKI