While reading one of rhe RK manga I have brought, I noticed that beside some of the words, there are two smaller symbols… Are those meant to explain what the symbol they’re placed besides means? I mean, beside the symbol for “Sword” (Ken), there are two symbols… So, what are those symbols? Just some of the more uncomplicated kanji? Or something else?
Guys, do you think he is talking about furigana? Because I don’t know much about the RK manga to be able to say whether it has furigana.
And now to answer your question: Assuming they are in fact furigana, then you are exactly correct–the little characters are hiragana (the Japanese phonetic alphabet) which tells how a given kanji is to be pronounced.
Yeah, it’s furigana. The 2 characters you saw were probably “ke” and “n”.
Oh, so that’s it. How important is the furigana, BTW? Are they used often?
quote:
Originally posted by Spectator Beholder:
Oh, so that's it. How important is the furigana, BTW? Are they used often?
Furigana are really useful for people like me, that still do not know all the commonly used 1880 Yoyo-Kanji, but the pronounciation of a whole lot japanese words.
I just wish, much more games would feature furigana...
quote:
Originally posted by Unicorn:
Furigana are really useful for people like me, that still do not know all the commonly used 1880 Yoyo-Kanji, but the pronounciation of a whole lot japanese words.
I just wish, much more games would feature furigana...
I see... Well, then I'll remember that if I start to learn Japanese [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]. How many gmaes have you encountered so far that has furigana?
quote:
Originally posted by Spectator Beholder:
I see... Well, then I'll remember that if I start to learn Japanese [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]. How many gmaes have you encountered so far that has furigana?
Up to now?
Only one: "Gakuen oujousama Kitan."
My question to the other also-japanese-games-players about further games featuring furigana remained unanswered, so I believe, they didn't know of others either... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img]
However, I have not yet tried the games, that arrived today in the morning, but I am not that optimnistic, one of them would do that...
quote:
Originally posted by Unicorn:
Up to now?
Only one: "Gakuen oujousama Kitan."My question to the other also-japanese-games-players about further games featuring furigana remained unanswered, so I believe, they didn't know of others either... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img]
However, I have not yet tried the games, that arrived today in the morning, but I am not that optimnistic, one of them would do that...
Just one? Aww... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img].
Well, you never know... Don't give up yet, sometimes you find a hidden treasure you didn't except to find [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img].
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Originally posted by Spectator Beholder:
Don't give up yet, sometimes you find a hidden treasure you didn't except to find [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img].
Of cause, I don't give up.
However, in the meantime I also continue learning Kanji and this feature will becomes in time less important to me.
But I am also convinced, there have to exist more of these games. We simply don't know about them.
Hmmm. Maybe, I should give himeya a suggestion to point out this special feature in their product descriptions...
(at least, this should be easier to do and less embarassing, than the translated game descriptions of the recently released games)
I don’t remember any furigana in my games ever as well… Well, except for the occasional exceptional kanji with an old pronunciation, but…
FYI, Beholder-san, furigana are often used in manga for teens, to help them learn their kanji. In adult publications (“adult” as in publications for grown-ups – who whould know their kanji – not as in “contains sex or violence”), they are used to indicates a weird/old (medieval)/not common prononciation of a word, or for not commonly used words.
[This message has been edited by olf_le_fol (edited 10-07-2002).]
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Originally posted by olf_le_fol:
FYI, Beholder-san, furigana are often used in manga for teens, to help them learn their kanji. In adult publications ("adult" as in publications for grown-ups -- who whould know their kanji -- not as in "contains sex or violence"), they are used to indicates a weird/old (medieval)/not common prononciation of a word, or for not commonly used words.
Hmm, thne it's no wonder that they are found in the RK manga, thne since it is a manga for teens (and Shonen Jump seems to be concentrating more on teens than anything else). So, any Kanji could be "explained" by furigana?
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Originally posted by Spectator Beholder:
So, any Kanji could be "explained" by furigana?
It's not that simple. Almost any Kanji has at least two readings (=phonetic descriptions). But you can express any phonetic description in furigana, because furigana are a phonetic notation.
quote:Yeah, sometimes, the kanji means one way, but the furigana read another. It's a bit tricky. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]
Originally posted by Unicorn:
It's not that simple. Almost any Kanji has at least two readings (=phonetic descriptions). But you can express any phonetic description in furigana, because furigana are a phonetic notation.