3 ms·

Kanji is efficient precisely because it is dense.

by sizt 6y ago

cambalache 6y ago
Yeah, what a weird comment.How can you argue that you need more length and characters when comparing 2000-3000 Kanji vs 26 letters (I am ignoring the "kanas" to simplify the argument) It is like saying Hexadecimal is more verbose than binary.
- japgolly 6y ago
  That's not how Japanese works. Yes Japanese uses Chinese characters that's only a subset of Japanese. Japanese sentences are typically a bit longer than English in terms of syllables and written length - their main reduction technique at the language level is omission, rarely efficiency improvement. - Why's it so hot today? = 6 syllables - Nande konna ni atsui no kyou? = 10 syllables (spoken colloquially) What about written length? You can see the Japanese sentence is a little longer here (when the English uses a non-monospaced font). It's also enough to demonstrates the why using kanji doesn't always provide the huge reduction/compression that you're expecting. - Why's it so hot today? - なんでこんなに暑いの今日？
  - fyolnish 6y ago
    Why’s it so hot today? 何でこんなに暑いの今日？ Where in the US are you from? 出身は米国の何処ですか? Japanese sentences are usually shorter than the english translation.
    - s1300045 6y ago
      I speak Mandarin Chinese. They are kind of similar. 今天怎麼這麼熱？美國那來的？
    - Jach 6y ago
      For paid translations, English likes to charge by the word, whereas Japanese charges by the character. The rule of thumb for conversion is 2 JP characters --> 1 English word i.e. translating a 1000 character JP document you'll expect about 500 EN words at the end.
  - cambalache 6y ago
    > Japanese sentences are typically a bit longer than English in terms of syllables and written length? Do you understand than 1 kana represents 1 syllable? They are BY DEFINITION, more concise than Latin letters.
    - japgolly 6y ago
      Wow thanks! I didn't understand that despite being able to read and write Japanese! Sarcasm aside you don't seem to have a very deep understanding so maybe you should be a bit nicer when expressing your opinion. > 1 kana represents 1 syllable ちゅ <-- 2 kana, 1 syllable > BY DEFINITION, more concise than Latin letters smash <-- 1 syllable, 5 latin letters, ~3 kana in length スマッシュ <-- 5 kana

Kanji is efficient precisely because it is dense.

by sizt 6y ago

Kanji is efficient precisely because it is dense.

Yeah, what a weird comment.How can you argue that you need more length and characters when comparing 2000-3000 Kanji vs 26 letters (I am ignoring the "kanas" to simplify the argument) It is like saying Hexadecimal is more verbose than binary.

japgolly 6y ago
That's not how Japanese works. Yes Japanese uses Chinese characters that's only a subset of Japanese. Japanese sentences are typically a bit longer than English in terms of syllables and written length - their main reduction technique at the language level is omission, rarely efficiency improvement. - Why's it so hot today? = 6 syllables - Nande konna ni atsui no kyou? = 10 syllables (spoken colloquially) What about written length? You can see the Japanese sentence is a little longer here (when the English uses a non-monospaced font). It's also enough to demonstrates the why using kanji doesn't always provide the huge reduction/compression that you're expecting. - Why's it so hot today? - なんでこんなに暑いの今日？
- fyolnish 6y ago
  Why’s it so hot today? 何でこんなに暑いの今日？ Where in the US are you from? 出身は米国の何処ですか? Japanese sentences are usually shorter than the english translation.
  - s1300045 6y ago
    I speak Mandarin Chinese. They are kind of similar. 今天怎麼這麼熱？美國那來的？
  - Jach 6y ago
    For paid translations, English likes to charge by the word, whereas Japanese charges by the character. The rule of thumb for conversion is 2 JP characters --> 1 English word i.e. translating a 1000 character JP document you'll expect about 500 EN words at the end.
- cambalache 6y ago
  > Japanese sentences are typically a bit longer than English in terms of syllables and written length? Do you understand than 1 kana represents 1 syllable? They are BY DEFINITION, more concise than Latin letters.
  - japgolly 6y ago
    Wow thanks! I didn't understand that despite being able to read and write Japanese! Sarcasm aside you don't seem to have a very deep understanding so maybe you should be a bit nicer when expressing your opinion. > 1 kana represents 1 syllable ちゅ <-- 2 kana, 1 syllable > BY DEFINITION, more concise than Latin letters smash <-- 1 syllable, 5 latin letters, ~3 kana in length スマッシュ <-- 5 kana