Information AboutOkurigana |
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Okurigana (送り仮名, literally "accompanying letters") are Kana suffixes following Kanji stems in Japanese written words. Generally used to inflect an adjective or verb, ''okurigana'' can indicate tense (past or present/future), affirmative/negative meaning, or Grammatical Politeness , among many other functions. In modern usage, ''okurigana'' are almost invariably written with Hiragana ; Katakana were also commonly used in the past. INFLECTION EXAMPLES Adjective s in Japanese use ''okurigana'' to indicate Tense and affirmation/negation, with all adjectives using the same pattern of suffixes for each case. A simple example uses the character "高" (high) to express the four basic cases of a Japanese adjective. The root meaning of the word is expressed via the ''kanji'' ("高", read ''taka'' and meaning "high" in each of these cases), but crucial information (negation and tense) can only be understood by reading the ''okurigana'' following the kanji stem. ; 高い (takai) : High (positive, present/future), meaning " is expensive" or " is high" ; 高かった (takakatta) : High (positive, past), meaning " was expensive/high" ; 高くない (takakunai) : High (negative, present/future), meaning " is not expensive/high" ; 高くなかった (takakunakatta) : High (negative, past), meaning " was not expensive/high" Japanese Verbs follow a similar pattern; the root meaning is generally expressed by using one or more ''kanji'' at the start of the word, and then tense, negation, Grammatical Politeness , and other language features are expressed by following ''okurigana''. ; 食べる (taberu) : To eat (positive, present/future, direct politeness), meaning " {Link without Title} eat" ; 食べない (tabenai) : To eat (negative, present/future, direct), meaning " {Link without Title} do not eat" ; 食べた (tabeta) : To eat (positive, past, direct), meaning " {Link without Title} ate/have eaten" ; 食べなかった (tabenakatta) : To eat (negative, past, direct), meaning " {Link without Title} did not eat/have not eaten" Compare the direct polite verb forms to their distant forms, which follow a similar pattern, but whose meaning indicates more distance between the speaker and the listener: ; 食べます (tabemasu) : To eat (positive, present/future, distant politeness), meaning " group/your group eats" ; 食べません (tabemasen) : To eat (negative, present/future, distant), meaning " group/your group does not eat" ; 食べました (tabemashita) : To eat (positive, past, distant), meaning " group/your group ate/has eaten" ; 食べませんでした (tabemasen deshita) : To eat (negative, past, distant), meaning " group/your group did not eat/has not eaten" DISAMBIGUATION OF KANJI ''Okurigana'' are also used to disambiguate Kanji that have multiple readings. Since ''kanji'', especially the most common ones, can be used for words with many (usually similar) meanings—but different pronunciations—key ''okurigana'' placed after the ''kanji'' help the reader to know which meaning and reading were intended. Disambiguation examples include common verbs which use the characters "上" (up) and "下" (down): ; 上がる (agaru) : "to ascend/to make ready/to complete", in which 上 is read "a" ; 上る (noboru) : "to climb/to go up", in which 上 is read "nobo" ; 下さる (kudasaru) : "to give the speaker as an inferior ", in which 下 is read "kuda" ; 下りる (oriru) : "to get off/to descend", in which 下 is read "o" ; 下がる (sagaru) : "to dangle", in which 下 is read "sa" ; 話 (hanashi) : talk, noun ; 話し (hanashi) : to talk, a verb form, continuous While the Japanese Ministry Of Education prescribes rules on how to use ''okurigana'', in practice there is much variation, particularly in older texts and online. For instance, the standard spelling of the word "kuregata" is 暮れ方, but it will sometimes be seen as 暮方. |
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