"Brian" in Japanese.
So Japanese is awesome.
Japanese developed purely as a spoken language. The didn't really develop a written language at all. And sometime in the early BC/AD time line, a bunch of Chinese people went to Japan.
The Japanese saw this crazy 'writing' stuff and though "we'll have us some of that". Thus did Kanji come about. Now, I've heard of Kanji before. I thought Kanji is the name of Chinese writing: that's not the case.
Kanji is the Japanese name for Chinese writing.
Kan = Chinese
Ji = Letters/Characters
The Japanese are a simple people. :P
So I asked Sam what the Chinese was for Chinese writing, and he simply responded 'writing'. It makes sense, I guess, though I felt dumb afterward...... :P
So anywho.....
Take a Syllable, like 'bu'. There are 8 possible images in Kanji for that sound. And if you take one of those images, they each have at minimum (usually) 2 possible sounds. So if you see a Kanji character, there's no real way to know which of the (in some cases) 6 sounds you should be making when reading it. Its not contextual: you just learn off the combinations.
What does this mean?
This means if you want to write your name in Kanji (and I do) you simply make the noises, look up the possible choices for that sound, and pick the ones you like. Bear in mind that there are a total of 96 Kanji combinations to choose from for "Brian". :D :D :D
Learning Kanji just became *fun*. :D
"Brian" works out pretty cool in Japanese. So much so, I'm putting the damn thing on a t-shirt.
The Japanese have 2 additional writing styles, Hiragana and Katakana. These writings are *purely* phonetic. Japanese writing consists of a combination of Kanji and Hiragana (Katakana are used primarily for foreign objects/concepts, like 'car' or 'computer'. I've not found out why, yet.).
This means that I can put down the Kanji for Brian, and stick the Hiragana beside it as a pronunciation guide. This has two benefits:
1. Everyone familiar with Kanji (ie both Chinese people and Japanese people) will know that I intend the Kanji to be pronounced in Japanese.
2. Everyone who reads Hiragana and Kanji will know exactly how the name is pronounced.
In addition to that: the meaning of the Kanji is the same in both Chinese and Japanese. So even if a Chinese person reads it, its still fairly cool. :)
Additionally, Kanji is simply a concept written down. How you combine the concepts is entirely a personal choice. For example:
Small writing on the right is Hiragana. The five symbols are pronounced (using standard English phonetics. Japanese phonetics (romanji) is written differently): boo rah ee ah n
The large symbols are the Kanji. Bu Rai An
Symbol 1: Bu (8 Kanji choices for this sound)
Meaning: warrior; military; chivalry; arms
Symbol 2: Rai (3 Kanji choices for this sound)
Meaning: thunder; lightening bolt
Symbol 3: An (4 Kanji choices for this sound)
Meaning: relax; cheap; low; quiet; rested; contented; peaceful
I have emboldened the meanings I'm preferring.
And I think "Thunderous Warrior at Peace" is a pretty awesome t-shirt slogan, regardless of how its pronounced. I also totally dig how it dove-tails with the Irish meaning of Brian. :)
Anywho. Off to bed I go. :)