I know that kanji are borrowed from Chinese characters but are all of them borrowed?
As a Chinese native speaker, I am wondering the origins of modern kanjis. Most of them are exactly same as the Chinese counterpart, others are simplified versions of Chinese characters (like 聴 is a simplification of 聽 and 図 a simplification of 圖) and I know that this is due to the reform after WWII. But there are some kanji that I just can't figure out which hanzi they originate from. For example, 転 and 込. The former seems to come from 運 or 轉 but I'm not sure. Maybe I'm completely wrong.
Are 転 and 込 kanjis that native Japanese made up? Not based on a hanzi? But after seeing this post, this is not very possible. Is there a way I can find from which hanzis did these kanjis originate?
Answer
Yes, there are a few kanji that were invented purely by Japanese people. Examples are listed in 和製漢字. Some kanji were reverse-imported to Chinese (see: Japanese-coined CJKV characters used outside Japanese). But I believe there are also many Chinese-origin kanji that are in use only in Japan because they have fallen out of use elsewhere. So not all kanji that are unfamiliar to you are Japanese-coined.
Wiktionary has the information about the etymology of most kanji (although I don't know how much they are credible).
- 込 is a 和製漢字 and is included in the above list. (Wiktionary)
- 転 is a simplified version of 轉. (Wiktoinary)
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