Posted by Nina on 6/27/2004, 1:22 am, in reply to "Simple Japanese (K)" Examples? 'Yoroiden'(Z`): 'yoroi(Z)' means armor, 'den(`)' means legend, so it's 'Legend of Armor' 'Kikoutei Densetsu'(Pàé`à): 'Densetsu(`à)' are two characters, but ONE word. It means legend as well. so it's 'Legend of Kikoutei(Pàé)'. There is no use to separate Den and setsu, unless you're a lingustic major and is interesting in the history of the each specific kanji. 'Gaiden'(O`) means 'Side Story'. Again, this is one word. Don't separate them. As for how one knows when characters goes together and when characters don't...it comes with experience (^^;). There are no universal rules apply to it. Generally, two-character words are very common, so are four-character words. So try to 'connect' them when you use the dictionary (if separate them makes no sense). And remember, the pronunciation tends to be different when a character is by itself from when a character is combined with other characters. Also, there are usually multiple characters with the same pronunciation. For (people's) names, Japanese people tend to combine kanji in a way that sounds/looks good, the meaning usually not as important. First of all, there is no meaning to analysis individual kanji of the troopers' last name. 'Hashiba(HÄ)', 'Sanada(^c)', 'Mouri(Ñ)', 'Date(ÉB)', 'Yagyuu(ö¶)' were used because they are the last names of famous warriors (the troopers' ancients), not because the individual meanings of the kanjis. For the first names, a lot of them are named because of the SOUND, the kanji only applies later. For example, Ryo, Seiji, and Shin were pretty common sounds of Japanese first names. Tou-ma is a common LAST NAME (well, maybe not so common, but at least people knows that it's a 'name') and it makes no sense to divide the kanjis. Shuu's name comes from the SOUND only as a matter of fact. There is no such Chinese last name of 'Shuu' with the same kanji, which is a common mistake made by Japanese people (i.e. creating non-existing Chinese last names in stories).
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If you try to translate Japanese, remember that NOT always kanji are translated one by one. Sometimes the meaning changes when two (or more) specific kanji are together, and it makes no sense to separate them.
Remember, this is Japanese, and although the English spelling (i.e. pronunciation) reads the same, it's not necessary the same WORD in Japanese. Detach a word from it's context would make it very difficult to know which word it really is. If that's in Kanji (Japanese), the writing would be different, and it's very easy to differentiate. SO my advice is, if you want to buy a Janapese-English or English-Japanese dictionary, make sure you get the one which also lists the kanji. I've seen English-Japanese dictionary with only alphapetic letters...which is not very useful at times.
Second, the meaning which attached to these last names usually came AFTER the existence of the famous warrior themselves. 'Date = Show-off' came after the existence of Date Masamune(ÉB@) due to his personality, it doesn't mean that all of his descendents are people who show-off!! (And 'Date = show-off' only applies when there's a certain word come right after it (consider it similar as a 'phrase'), 'Date' itself doesn't necessary means 'show-off'.
The kanjis were more or less applied because the animators like them, but not because of some other fancy meanings...(well, I believe so).
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