Abstract: Six Methods of Character Creation & Japanese Learning: There is scientific basis for recognizing characters by half (serious face...
This article is my answer to Is there a book similar to "English Etymology" for learning Japanese? - Zhihu.
Question#
Is there a book similar to "English Etymology" for learning Japanese?
Recently, while learning English, I found that books like "English Etymology" that start from etymology are really useful. So is there a similar vocabulary book for learning Japanese? Or is there a book that helps understand words from the most basic concepts (like how "English Etymology" starts by expanding words based on human characteristics)?
Or have you thought about learning through Japanese elementary school textbooks? I hope the experts can provide some learning ideas.
Answer#
Sorry, I haven't read English Etymology (but I've added it to my reading list), and I have some interest in this question, so I’m sharing some of my immature thoughts, hoping to spark some discussion. If there are any mistakes, I hope the experts will go easy on me.
The book recommended by other answers, New Thinking on Japanese Vocabulary (Douban), is indeed worth a look.
Secondly, here are two websites where you can check etymology:
Etymology Dictionary
Japanese Colloquial Dictionary (mainly focuses on new words)
If you find it troublesome to switch to the browser every time to look up words, you can refer to my answer: What are some useful Japanese dictionary apps?
There is also a question on Zhihu that might help: What are some useful Japanese dictionary apps?
To clarify, the following content may not be suitable for those who are self-studying out of mere interest.
Personally, I think if you want to master Japanese, you can spend some time understanding the Six Methods of Character Creation, and then analyze the Japanese words you encounter from the perspective of "character origin" (note: this only applies to words) — this is something that only Chinese people can quickly grasp regarding etymology and affixes.
However, to put it bluntly:
Don't know how to read the Sino-Japanese words?
Just use the homophones from Chinese!
What, feeling nervous and can't think of a homophone?
Just look at the radicals of the obvious Chinese characters.
Phonetic and Semantic#
Many people notice that the phonetic readings of Japanese can be inferred using Chinese pinyin — that is, they follow the principle of "phonetic and semantic."
But this method can sometimes lead to errors because the phonetic readings in Japanese are not derived from the modern Chinese pronunciations; they are more influenced by ancient dialects from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal regions.
However, some blame should be placed on the Japanese people, as they adopted the strategy of recognizing characters by half. Did the students from Sichuan feel ecstatic? Hiahiahia
The Japanese also know that the pronunciations of Chinese characters are not that simple, so they specifically refer to those mispronounced readings as 慣用読み, from which one can clearly understand that "the radical is an affix of the Chinese character."
Here are a few interesting examples; while looking at them, you can think about the differences between pinyin and Japanese.
Note: The readings in parentheses are the 慣用読み, not the only readings.
憧（どう）憬 - 児童
垂涎（えん）- 延長
浸漬（せき）- 責任
摺（しゅう）動 - 学習
綴（てつ）字 - 輟
減耗・損耗（もう）- 毛髪
輸（ゆ）贏 - 愉快
撒（さん）水 - 散歩
甘蔗（しょ）- 庶民
甦（こう）生 - 更新
簇 (ぞく) 簇 - 家族
秤（ひょう）量 - 好評
残滓（さい）- 太宰治
洗滌（じょう）- 条件
攪（かく）拌・攪乱ー発覚
拮（きっ）抗 - 吉兆
Considering that the above is directly organized from dictionary data and may not be very practical, let me give a few more practical examples.
Note: The readings in () are from the video.
Oral cavity (くう), confused with 真空 and 天空's 空.
Blind (もう) spot, this is a consensus between the people of China and Japan, nothing more to say.
Delusion (もう) — this... this works too?!
Don't panic, let's check the dictionary. Oh, 妄 itself has more than one reading, so 妄想 can also be read as ぼう (those who inferred from 逃亡 can breathe a sigh of relief).
Finally, here’s the most interesting one:
Holy spear (そう)... warehouse? This is a huge gap from pinyin!
However, this might be because the Japanese strictly follow the Six Methods of Character Creation:
The reason I put this at the end is that 枪 in both the "Kangxi Dictionary" and "Shuowen Jiezi" only has the reading 千羊切 (from 汉典), and the above image clearly shows that there is only one phonetic reading in Japanese.
Similarly, you can't just look at the radicals to infer the reading for 読書 — the phonetic component of 読 is not just 売, so it’s normal that the standalone 売 and the 読 with 売 differ significantly.
In summary, if you want to infer from pinyin, you must ensure that the phonetic components of both characters are the same. Although for most people's level of Chinese, it is also quite difficult to accurately judge a character's phonetic component, plus the phonetic components have very complex rules regarding actual readings, so I recommend following the Japanese: recognize characters by half, just in case you get it right...
Additionally, I noticed the questioner's profile; I wonder if they are from Chongqing — can they distinguish between な行 and ら行？Here’s an additional tip:
The phonetic readings of Japanese words with な (n) and ら (r) often correspond to the n and l in Chinese pinyin.
So far, I have only found one, 螺子ねじ (neji) and luo. (If there are counterexamples, feel free to add them).
Don't ask me how I know this ╰（‵□′）╯
Ideogram#
Understanding the "Six Methods of Character Creation" makes it easier to understand many Japanese verbs that can be written with multiple Chinese characters:
止める／ 留める／停める
上げる／揚げる／挙げる
Although many times only kana is written, understanding those verbs with multiple meanings through this perspective will be much easier (these words often have more than one kanji).
Additionally, sometimes checking what kanji is used for the kana in grammatical patterns can suddenly clarify things. Teacher An Ning's "New Thinking on Japanese Grammar" follows this approach and is highly recommended.
Conclusion#
From the perspective of character origin, I believe the comprehensive work is “漢字源” (the "Shuowen Jiezi" of the Japanese language in my heart), but this resource seems not to help amateur Japanese learners in making connections to remember words, and it's also hard to find the physical book in China.
If you are really interested, you can download it for a fee from the Google Play Store and iOS App Store; for those who don't want to bother and use it occasionally, the website 漢字ペディア is a good option.
Easter Egg#
The character 控 in the phrase 襟三江而带五湖，控蛮荆而引瓯越 is generally translated as "control" in China.
However, after learning Japanese, I find this understanding somewhat strange.
Because 控える has a common usage in Japanese: 学校の後ろに山が控えている, which is explained by "spatially or temporally pressing; located nearby."
However, I have yet to find a convincing explanation, so I’m throwing this out there hoping for expert input.
(Of course, it’s also possible that the Japanese were misled by this piece of "Tengwang Pavilion" 233)