Hieroglyphics - this is what? Chinese and Japanese hieroglyphs and their meaning

Some writing systems have a special sign on which they are based, a hieroglyph. In some languages, it can denote a syllable or sound, in others - words, concepts and morphemes. In the latter case, the name "ideogram" is more common.

The picture below shows ancient hieroglyphics.

History of hieroglyphs

In translation from the Greek language the name "hieroglyph" means "sacred letter". For the first time, drawings of such a plan appeared in Egypt before our era. First, the hieroglyphs denoted letters, that is, ideograms, a little later there were signs that denoted words and syllables. In this case, the interesting fact is that only consonant letters were represented by signs. The name came from the Greek language, because they were the first to see on the stones incomprehensible letters to them. Judging by the Egyptian chronicles and some myths, hieroglyphs were invented by the god Toth. He formed them in order to keep in writing some of the knowledge obtained by the Atlanteans.

An interesting fact is that in Egypt the sign language has already appeared fully formed. All that scientists and the government did was to simplify it. For a long time, the hieroglyphs and their meaning were incomprehensible to the European people. Only in 1822 Chapollon was able to fully study the Egyptian signs on the Rosetta stone and find their decoding.

In the fifties of the XIX century, some artists working in the style of expressionism and tashism, were deeply involved in the East. Thanks to this, a flow connected with the Asian sign system and calligraphy was created. In addition to the ancient Egyptian, Chinese characters and Japanese were common.

Hieroglyphic art

Thanks to the brush (the subject, which is customary to write signs), it is possible to decorate the hieroglyphics and give them a more elegant or formal form. The art of owning a beautiful writing is called calligraphy. It is common in Japan, Malaysia, South and North Korea, China, and Vietnam. The inhabitants of these countries such art affectionately called "music for the eyes." At the same time, exhibitions and contests devoted to beautiful writing are often held.

Hieroglyphics - this is not only a written system of some countries, but also a way to express oneself.

Ideographic letter

Ideographic writing is currently only in China. Initially, it arose in order to simplify the writing, make it more accurate. But in this way one minus is noticed: such a system of writing was not connected. Because of this, she gradually began to leave the everyday life of people. Now the ideographic letter characterizes the Chinese characters. And their meaning is much like the ancient. The only difference is in the way of writing.

Chinese Writing

The Chinese letter consists in writing hieroglyphs, which designate individual syllables and words, as already mentioned above. It was formed in the II century BC. At the moment there are more than 50 thousand characters, but only 5 thousand are used. In ancient times, such writing was used not only in China, but also in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, having a huge impact on the formation of their cultures. Chinese hieroglyphs formed the basis of national sign systems. And until now they are widely used.

Origin of Chinese characters

The development of Chinese writing not only affected the whole nation, but also had a huge impact on world art. In the 16th century BC hieroglyphs were formed. At that time people wrote on the bones and shells of turtles. Thanks to excavations of archaeologists and well-preserved remains, it became easier for scientists to disassemble the ancient letter. It was found more than 3 thousand characters, but comments were given only about 1 thousand. This form of writing acquired a modern form only after the full formation of oral speech. Chinese characters are an ideograph that means a word or a syllable.

Japanese letter

The writing of Japan is based on syllabic and alphabetic signs. About 2 thousand hieroglyphs were borrowed from Chinese peoples to use those parts of words that do not change. The rest are written using a canal (syllabic alphabet). It is divided into two versions: katakana and hiragana. The first is used for words coming from other languages, and the second is for purely Japanese. This technique seemed most appropriate.

As a rule, Japanese characters on the letter are read from left to right, in the case of horizontal writing. Sometimes there is a direction from top to bottom, as well as from right to left.

Origin of Japanese characters

Japanese writing was formed by trial, error and simplification. It was difficult for the people to use only Chinese in the documents. Now the formation of language - a question that causes constant debate. Some scientists attribute it to the time of the conquest of the Japanese islands, and others - to the era of Yayoi. After the introduction of Chinese writing, the oral speech of the nation underwent a great change.

In the 90s of the XIX century, the government revised all the hieroglyphs, which combined the combination of several types of writing, and allowed only 1800 pieces to be used, when in fact there were much more. Now because of the influence of American and other Western cultures, the official speech has practically disappeared, slang becomes more meaningful. Due to this the difference between dialects decreased.

The emergence of the writing system in Japan

When the Japanese government decided to create a language system, the first hieroglyphs (this is its main tool) were taken from the Chinese script. This event was due to the fact that in ancient times on the Japanese islands the Chinese lived frequently, who brought various things, objects, and books. It is not known how the Japanese hieroglyphs developed at that time. Unfortunately, there is almost no data on this.

The development of Buddhism in the country strongly influenced the writing. This religion came thanks to the Korean embassy, which arrived in the state and brought various sculptures and texts of the Buddha. The first time after the full introduction of the Chinese letter into the life of Japan people used to write foreign words. However, after a few years discomfort arose, as the native language of the nation was somewhat different and was simpler. Problems were also created when writing their own names, where Chinese characters would be used. This for a long time worried the Japanese. The problem was this: in the Chinese language, there were no words and sounds that needed to be recorded in the document.

The idea of breaking Japanese words into several meaningful parts was completely unsuccessful. In this case, the correct reading had to be forgotten. If you do not get distracted by the meaning, then these parts of the word should have been selected, so that the reader will understand that he is dealing with words whose meaning can be ignored. This problem existed long enough, and it had to be solved without going beyond the boundaries of Chinese writing.

Some scientists eventually began to invent special signs, with the help of which it would be possible to read the text written in Chinese in Japanese. Calligraphy implied that every hieroglyph should be placed in a conditional square, in order not to violate the boundaries of the entire letter. The Japanese decided to divide it into several parts, each of which played its functional role. It was from this time that the hieroglyphs (Chinese) and their significance for Japan began to slowly go into oblivion.

Kukai is a person who (according to the legend) created hiraganas (the first Japanese script). Thanks to the development in the sphere of hieroglyphs, special writing systems based on phonetics were created. A little later, by simplifying the shape of the hieroglyphs, katakana appeared, which became firmly in use.

Japan has already borrowed orderly writing from China at that time because of their territorial neighborhood. But by developing and changing symbolic symbols for themselves, people began to invent the first Japanese hieroglyphics. The Japanese could not use the Chinese letter in its original form, if only because there is no word-change in it. The development of the language did not stop there. When the nation became acquainted with other systems (based on hieroglyphics), taking their writing elements, she made her language more unique.

Communication of hieroglyphs with the Russian language

Tattoo in the form of Japanese and Chinese signs is very popular now. That's why you need to know the meaning of the hieroglyphs in Russian, before you stuff them into your body. It is best to use those that mean "well-being", "happiness", "love" and so on. Before visiting a tattoo artist, it is best to check the meaning in several sources at once.

A parody of Asian symbols is also popular in Russian-speaking countries. Russian hieroglyphs do not exist officially, but only appear on the pages of social networks. They are created due to the huge imagination of Internet users. Basically, these signs do not carry a special semantic load and exist only for entertainment. Also invented games that are based on guessing which word is encrypted in this or that character.