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The way I've heard it explained is that Japanese has too many homonyms and simply writing things by sound would be too ambiguous. On the other hand, a friend w

The way I've heard it explained is that Japanese has too many homonyms and simply writing things by sound would be too ambiguous. On the other hand, a friend who spent a year in Japan remarked that, e.g. policemen carry dictionaries with them. When you need to carry around a book on how to write your own language because it has way too many complicated glyphs for everyday people to learn to 100%, maybe it's time for an orthographic reform.

auctiontheory 13y ago
a friend who spent a year in Japan remarked that, e.g. policemen carry dictionaries with them. Wow. I write fiction, but this is one of those cases where truth is so much weirder than anything I'd feel comfortable "inventing."
srunni 13y ago
> The way I've heard it explained is that Japanese has too many homonyms and simply writing things by sound would be too ambiguous. I explored this concept in this Reddit comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/14bv4p/wednesday_ama_i_am_asiaexpert_one_stop_shop_for/c7bqdkq http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/14bv4p/wednes...
maaku 13y ago
> On the other hand, a friend who spent a year in Japan remarked that, e.g. policemen carry dictionaries with them. From my experience this is more of a cultural thing than linguistic...
enko 13y ago
> a friend who spent a year in Japan remarked that, e.g. policemen carry dictionaries with them I am not at all surprised to hear that. I have family in Japan and have observed many times an inability to remember how to write a certain kanji eg. when filling in a form. Typically people will then type the word phonetically on a cell phone or computer, which prompts them with matching kanji, jogging their memory. There is a strong reliance on these technologies or, I suppose, dictionaries, which are also organised phonetically. It is of course the case that English speakers occasionally forget words - I've looked up "diarrhoea" more than once in my life! But it's not an everyday thing like I've seen with my japanese relatives.

auctiontheory 13y ago

a friend who spent a year in Japan remarked that, e.g. policemen carry dictionaries with them. Wow. I write fiction, but this is one of those cases where truth is so much weirder than anything I'd feel comfortable "inventing."

srunni 13y ago

> The way I've heard it explained is that Japanese has too many homonyms and simply writing things by sound would be too ambiguous. I explored this concept in this Reddit comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/14bv4p/wednesday_ama_i_am_asiaexpert_one_stop_shop_for/c7bqdkq http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/14bv4p/wednes...

maaku 13y ago

> On the other hand, a friend who spent a year in Japan remarked that, e.g. policemen carry dictionaries with them. From my experience this is more of a cultural thing than linguistic...

enko 13y ago

> a friend who spent a year in Japan remarked that, e.g. policemen carry dictionaries with them I am not at all surprised to hear that. I have family in Japan and have observed many times an inability to remember how to write a certain kanji eg. when filling in a form. Typically people will then type the word phonetically on a cell phone or computer, which prompts them with matching kanji, jogging their memory. There is a strong reliance on these technologies or, I suppose, dictionaries, which are also organised phonetically. It is of course the case that English speakers occasionally forget words - I've looked up "diarrhoea" more than once in my life! But it's not an everyday thing like I've seen with my japanese relatives.