Ryakuji

"略字りゃくじ" redirects here. For Korean shorthand simplifications of Hanja (약자), see Yakja.

Sign reading "umbrella stand" (仐おき, kasa-oki, standard form 傘かさおき, showing ryakuji form of 傘かさ: 仐 (人ひと + 十じゅう), with inner 人ひと omitted. Compare simplified Chinese 伞.

Price tag reading ¥400, 特価とっか品ひん (bargain item), showing ryakuji form of 品しな, with bottom squares connected

In Japanese language, Ryakuji (Japanese: 略字りゃくじ "abbreviated characters", or 筆写ひっしゃ略字りゃくじ hissha ryakuji, meaning "handwritten abbreviated characters") are colloquial simplifications of kanji.

Status

Ryakuji are not covered in the Kanji Kentei, nor are they officially recognized (most ryakuji are not present in Unicode). However, some abbreviated forms of hyōgaiji (表おもて外字がいじ, characters not included in the tōyō or jōyō kanji lists) included in the JIS standards which conform to the shinjitai simplifications are included in Level pre-1 and above of the Kanji Kentei (e.g., 餠→餅もち, 摑→掴), as well as some other allowances for alternate ways of writing radicals and alternate forms. Some ryakuji were adopted as shinjitai.

Some simplifications are commonly used as special Japanese typographic symbols. These include:

• 々, the kanji iteration mark, from 仝, a variant of 同どう;
• 〻, the vertical form, from 二に;
• the hiragana and katakana iteration marks, ゝ and ヽ, generic strokes;
• 〆, shime, simplification of 占うらない (as 占しめ しめ shime) as cursive form of top component ト, used for various kanji read as しめ shime, primarily 締しめ, also 閉しめ, 絞しめ, 搾しぼめ, and original 占しめ;
• ヶ, small ke, simplification of 箇 (also used for 個こ), though with other uses.

Of these, only 〆 for 締しめ and ヶ for 箇 are generally recognized as being simplifications of kanji characters.

Replacements of complex characters by simpler standard characters (whether related or not) is instead a different phenomenon, kakikae. For example, in writing 年齢ねんれい43歳さい as 年令ねんれい43才さい (nenrei 43 sai "age 43 years"), 齢よわい is replaced by the component 令れい and 歳とし is replaced by 才ざい, in both cases with the same pronunciation but different meanings. The replacement of 齢よわい by 令れい is a graphic simplification (keeping the phonic), while 歳とし and 才ざい are graphically unrelated, but in both cases this is simply considered a replacement character, not a simplified form. Other examples include simplifying 醤油じょうゆ shōyu (soy sauce) to 正せい油あぶら.

Compare this to simplified Chinese.

Use

Ryakuji are primarily used in individual memos, notes and other such forms of handwriting. Their use has declined in recent years, possibly due to the emergence of computer technology and advanced input methods that allow equally fast input of both simple and complex characters. Despite this, the ryakuji for 門もん (mon, kado; gate) and for characters using the radical 門もん are still widely used in handwriting.

Abbreviations for multiple-character words or phrases

In all cases discussed in the other sections of this article, individual characters are simplified, but separate characters are not merged. There are rare cases of single-character abbreviations for multiple-character words or phrases, such as 圕 for 圖書館としょかん, 図書館としょかん toshokan, "library", but this is very unusual; see polysyllabic Chinese characters for this phenomenon in Chinese, where it is more common.

Examples

Some widely used ryakuji

Notes

Of these, several are commonly seen in signs: 門もん (2), 品しな (8), 器うつわ (12) are very commonly seen, particularly simplifying 間あいだ in store signs, while 第だい (1) and 曜 (5) are also relatively common, as is 𩵋 for 魚さかな (as in 点てん (3)). Other characters are less commonly seen in public, instead being primarily found in private writing.

• 1 and 2. (第だい, 門もん – These are perhaps the most commonly used Ryakuji. 1 (dai, ordinal prefix) is present in Unicode as U+3427 (㐧), but is not supported by the MS Gothic or Mincho family of typefaces, or Arial Unicode MS. According to the original Japanese article, 1 has been seen on roadsigns on the Keihin #3 Road (㐧三京浜けいひん道路どうろ, Dai-San Keihin Dōro). 2 is present in Unicode as U+95E8; it is unified with the closely related Simplified Chinese abbreviation 门 (both originated from cursive script forms). The Japanese form may be explicitly induced with the sequence U+95E8 U+E0100.
• 3. (点てん) – An abbreviation of the bottom four dots in the character 点てん is present in Unicode as 奌 U+594C, but is not supported by the MS Gothic or MS Mincho typefaces. It does appear in Arial Unicode, Sim Sun, Sim Hei, MingLiU, KaiU and New Gulim typefaces. Another simplification of this sort can be seen for the bottom four dots of 魚さかな (present in Unicode as 𩵋 U+29D4B). The bottom of the characters 熱ねつ and 馬うま, however, are simplified instead using a horizontal line, as in the Simplified Chinese characters 马 and 鱼.
• 4. (職しょく) (variant 1 is present in Unicode as U+803A; variant 2 is U+2B7C9) – Also used often, but somehow not applied to the related characters 織お and 識.
• 5. (曜) (⿰日にち玉だま, from 曜 = ⿰日にち翟) (present in Unicode as 𫞂 U+2B782) – Also often written as 旺 (originally a different character), but the dot (as in 玉たま) is used to distinguish. Common abbreviation in stores for days of week. The phonetic 翟 is generally not abbreviated to 玉だま in other character such as 濯, 擢, 櫂かい, 躍おど, 燿, or 耀.
• 6. (前まえ) – Grass script form (1 and 2 also originated from grass script forms)
• 7. (個こ) (present in Unicode as 㐰 U+3430) – Abbreviated by removing the contents of the kunigamae (固かた) component. There is also the 囗 (U+56D7) abbreviation for 国くに.
• 8 and 10. (選せん 機き, not present in Unicode) – A portion at the top consisting of two or more consecutive characters is changed to a ⺍ shape. This can be seen in the Shinjitai simplifications 榮さかえ→栄さかえ, 單たん→単たん, 嚴いむ→厳いむ, 巢す→巣す, 學まなぶ→学まなぶ. The 竹たけ top radical has also been used (although rarely). A colloquial simplification for 機き exists (not present in Unicode) in which the right portion is replaced by katakana キ (ki) to indicate the on reading.
• 9. (濾) (present in Unicode as 沪 U+6CAA) – Not as common a character, but a major ryakuji in scientific circles, as it is used in such words as 濾過ろか (roka, percolation). This character has also been seen in print. The component 盧の, pronounced RO just like 慮おもんばか, is commonly simplified to 戸と as well such as in 蘆あし→芦あし and the Shinjitai simplification 爐ろ→炉ろ.
• 11. 闘たたかえ to 閗 (⿰門もん斗と) or simply 斗と (in Unicode at U+9597). The complicated character 闘たたかえ (tō) is replaced by a simpler character of the same On reading, 斗と. This is formally known as kakikae, if one standard character is replaced by another standard character of the same reading, though hybrids such as 閗 (門もん斗と) are ryakuji. Another example of kakikae is 年齢ねんれい43歳さい→年令ねんれい43才さい (nenrei 43 sai "age 43 years"), and simplifications of this method have also been seen in print.
• 12. (品しな, 器うつわ) (present in Unicode as 𠯮 U+20BEE) – Also commonly seen. The bottom 吅 portion of 品しな is merged. Examples have also been seen in characters such as 靈れい (the Kyūjitai of 霊れい) in which the 𠱠 portion has been merged.
• 13. 魔ま, 摩ま (not present in Unicode) – A colloquial simplification in which katakana マ (ma) is used to indicate the on reading of both characters (ma). The simplification for 魔ま is seen in manga, and the simplification for 摩ま is commonly seen when writing place names such as Tama, Tokyo (多摩たま市し).

Further examples

Omitting components is a general principle, and the resulting character is often not a standard character, as in 傘かさ→仐.

If the resulting character is a standard character with the same reading (common if keeping the phonetic), this is properly kakikae instead, but if it is simply a graphic simplification (with a different reading) or the resulting character is not standard, this is ryakuji. One of the most common examples is 巾はば for 幅はば haba "width". Often the result would be ambiguous in isolation, but is understandable from context. This is particularly common in familiar compounds, such as in the following examples:

• 齢よわい→令れい in 年齢ねんれい→年令ねんれい
• 歴れき→厂 in 歴史れきし→厂史
• 経けい→圣 in 経済けいざい→圣済

In some cases, a component has been simplified when part of other characters, but has not been simplified in isolation, or has been simplified in some characters but not others. In that case, simplifying it in isolation can be used as common ryakuji. For example, 卒そつ is used in isolation, but in compounds has been simplified to 卆そつ, such as 醉よい to 酔よい. Using 卆そつ in isolation, such as when writing 新卒しんそつ shin-sotsu "newly graduated" as 新しん卆そつ, is unofficial ryakuji. As another example, 專せん has been simplified to 云うん in some characters, such as 傳つて to 伝つて, but only to 専せん in isolation or other characters. Thus simplifying the 専せん in 薄うすき (bottom part 溥) to 云うん is found in ryakuji.

More unusual examples come from calligraphic abbreviations, or more formally from printed forms of calligraphic forms: a standard character is first written in a calligraphic (草書そうしょ, grass script) form, then this is converted back to print script (楷書かいしょ) in a simplified form. This is the same principle as graphical simplifications such as 學まなぶ→学まなぶ, and of various simplifications above, such as 第だい→㐧. A conspicuous informal example is 喜き→㐂 (3 copies of the character for 7: 七なな), which is rather frequently seen on store signs. Other examples include 鹿しか→𢈘; and replacing the center of 風ふう with two 丶, as in the bottom of 冬ふゆ. 御お has various such simplifications. In Niigata (新潟にいがた), the second character 潟かた is rare and complex, and is thus simplified as 潟かた→泻（氵写）.

Derived characters

Derived characters accordingly also have derived ryakuji, as in these characters derived from 門もん:

• 
  門もん
• 
  間あいだ
• 
  開ひらく

Similarly, the 魚さかな→𩵋 simplification is often used in fish compounds, such as 鮨ずし sushi, particularly in signs.

Phonetic simplifications

Some ryakuji are simplified phono-semantic characters, retaining a radical as semantic and replacing the rest of the character with a katakana phonetic for the on reading, e.g., 議ぎ (20 strokes) may be simplified as 言げん (semantic) + ギ (phonetic gi for on reading):

• 
  機き → 木き + キ ki
• 
  議ぎ → 言げん + ギ gi
• 
  魔ま、摩ま → 广 + マ ma

Another example is 層そう sō, replacing the 曽そ by ソ so.

This may also be done using Latin characters; for example, the character 憲けん (as used in 憲法けんぽう kenpō, "constitution") may be simplified to "宀K": the radical 宀 placed over the letter K; this is particularly common in law school. Similarly, 慶應けいおう (Keiō) as in Keio University may be simplified to "广K广O": the letters K and O respectively placed inside the radical 广. In this case the pronunciation of "KO" (as an initialism) sounds like the actual name "Keiō", hence the use.

The character 機き has a number of ryakuji, as it is a commonly used character with many strokes (16 strokes); in addition to the above phono-semantic simplification, it also has a number of purely graphical simplifications:

• 
  木き + キ
• 
• 
• 

See also

• 〆, shime, simplification of 占うらない (as 占しめ しめ shime)
• ヶ, small ke, simplification of 箇
• Kana ligature
• Shinjitai
• Simplified Chinese character
• Variant Chinese character
• Yakja, Korean simplifications

References

• Spahn and Hadamitzky, The Kanji Dictionary, ISBN 978-0-8048-2058-5

External links

• More examples of Ryakuji
• Even more examples of Ryakuji Archived 2014-09-07 at the Wayback Machine