On Saturday, June 22, 2002, at 03:27 , Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Jun 2002, Benjamin Kowarsch wrote:
>
>> Often, old and new characters are used within the same writing system
>> and this often means a subtle difference in the meaning.
>
> Can you give an example of this?
I can't think of an explicit example other than in names of people and
places ...
For instance, the name Ozawa is often written with the old Kanji for
"zawa" but also with the new simplified one. Many people I asked about
this told me there was a subtle difference, that using the old character
would add a sense of traditional values etc etc.
Thus, if you have a Japanese document with a list of names of people or
places, such as administrative documents or even a timetable of JR, you
really need both characters within the same script from a user
requirements viewpoint.
We may dismiss this as politics, but then I ask you ... What would you
say if authorities came along and told you that henceforth the official
spelling of your name is "Samson" and not "Sampson" anymore due to some
standardisation going on ? You could still use your old name in private,
but for official purposes it's deemed to have changed.
Another field where old characters are in use in Japanese is law texts.
I don't have any specific example, but I know that Japanese legalese is
written in very traditional language with plenty of old Kanji. Even new
Japanese laws passed today seem written in this way.
Again, unless you wanted to reform the entire Japanese legal system or
tell the law makers, courts and lawyers that they have to have their own
separate Unicode, own fonts etc etc, you got to have both old and new
characters in the same script from a user requirements viewpoint.
And I wouldn't be surprised to find more examples if you look out for
them.
regards
benjamin
Received on Sat Jun 22 12:25:19 2002