Here's a breakdown:
Chinese Characters (漢字, Kanji)
* Origins: Developed in China over thousands of years.
* Function: Represents words, concepts, and ideas.
* Structure: Each character is a complex symbol that can have multiple readings (pronunciations) and meanings.
* Number: Thousands of characters are used in modern Chinese.
Japanese Writing Systems
* Three main systems:
* Kanji (漢字): Borrowed from Chinese characters, but they are pronounced differently in Japanese and can have different meanings.
* Hiragana (ひらがな): A phonetic script that represents syllables. Used for grammatical particles, verb endings, and words that don't have kanji.
* Katakana (カタカナ): Another phonetic script, mainly used for foreign words, onomatopoeia, and emphasis.
Key Differences
* Pronunciation: Kanji characters are pronounced differently in Japanese than in Chinese.
* Syllabic vs. Logographic: Hiragana and katakana are syllabic, meaning each character represents a syllable, while kanji are logographic, representing entire words or concepts.
* Number of Characters: Japanese uses a smaller subset of Chinese characters.
* Context: The three writing systems work together in Japanese to create a unique and complex written language.
In Summary:
While Japanese borrowed many characters from Chinese, they developed their own writing system with distinct features. Japanese uses a combination of borrowed characters (kanji) and phonetic scripts (hiragana and katakana) to create a language that is both visually and linguistically distinct from Chinese.