The Whale and the Fish
Friday, June 29th, 2007
| Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary |
In my first blog for JapanesePod101.com, I sought compounds with a neat repetition of shapes, such as 宝玉 (hōgyoku: jewel, gem, treasure + jewel).
Soon afterward, I found repeating shapes inside 読売 (to read + to sell), which says Yomiuri, as in the prominent newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. As Yomiuri isn’t a real word, I can’t help wondering if the founders coined 読売 partly for its visual appeal.
Repeated shapes within a compound can be visually arresting. Just look at all these words containing two or more instances of 力 (RYOKU, chikara: power):
| 助力 (joryoku: help, assistance) | help + power |
| 努力 (doryoku: effort) | toil + power | 労力 (rōryoku: trouble, effort) | labor + power | 効力 (kōryoku: effectiveness) | effect + power | 協力 (kyōryoku: cooperation) | cooperation + power | 動力 (dōryoku: power) | to move + power |
Compounds with repeating shapes can also be dizzying, particularly when viewed in a clump, as with this cluster of suns and moons:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 4 Comments »
