ID'ing a chinese/asian language symbol

[frankthedm]

[IMaGel]http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8103/asiancharacterbd6.gif[/IMaGel]I picked up a shirt for cheap at a convention recently and got to wondering what the symbol on it stood for. Anyone around here recognize it?

 

[Ferret]

It looks Chinese, but that's just from having read a "How to interpret Chinese symbols" in a newspaper.

 

[Huw]

It's not Chinese (at least, not modern Chinese)

In Japanese, it has three meanings

1) truth or sincerity
2) fruit, seed or nut (especially a peach stone)
3) clitoris

I really hope your T-shirt says the first one and not the third

 

[frankthedm]

It's not Chinese (at least, not modern Chinese)

In Japanese, it has three meanings

1) truth or sincerity
2) fruit, seed or nut (especially a peach stone)
3) clitoris

I really hope your T-shirt says the first one and not the third

There is an asian style dragon wreathed in flame around the symbol. It's facial features give the appearance it may have recently gotten high.

 

[Ambrus]

1) truth or sincerity
2) fruit, seed or nut (especially a peach stone)
3) clitoris

I'm amazed one symbol can mean any of these three distinct things. Makes me wonder what other wacky symbol groups there are in Japan.

Beloved / Nostril / Carburetor

 

[Ferret]

It's not Chinese (at least, not modern Chinese)

In Japanese, it has three meanings

1) truth or sincerity
2) fruit, seed or nut (especially a peach stone)
3) clitoris

I really hope your T-shirt says the first one and not the third

How do you distinguish between them!?

That could get tricky, imagine trying going to grocers and geting your symbols mixed up!

 

[Huw]

How do you distinguish between them!?

That could get tricky, imagine trying going to grocers and getting your symbols mixed up!

Quick Japanese lesson: nearly every character (kanji) has two different readings, an on reading taken from Chinese, representing the Chinese name and meaning of the character, and one or more kun readings, which are the Japanese words which the character is used in.

If the character is on its own, or with surrounding phonetics (kana), it is normally kun. If it is in a compound with other kanji, it is normally on.

So, the aforementioned character has an on reading of jitsu, which is old Chinese for real or sincere. The Japanese word for sincerity is makoto, so that is its kun reading.

For some reason, it has other kun readings and meanings, distinguished by context. Mi is fruit or nut, minoru is a verb meaning "bear fruit", and sane is peach stone, and, by way of euphemism, clitoris. Yes, it's complicated, but it rarely causes confusion (compare English "bear" - carry, "bear" - go in a certain direction, "bear" - have a baby and "bear" - large furry animal).

The symbol on the T-shirt is almost certainly "truth" or "sincerity".

 

[Ferret]

I'd love to learn some japanese/chinese. It does sound really interesting.

 

[Huw]

I'd love to learn some japanese/chinese. It does sound really interesting.

Where do you live? My wife teaches Mandarin in Hampshire - www.hampshirechinese.com (hope posting that's not against the forum's advertising rules).

 

[Geoff Watson]

One of my cousins once got a t-shirt (while in China) with nifty Chinese symbols that he didn't know what they meant.

It turned out they meant "Stupid Foreigner".

Geoff.