Speech

January 10, 2011

“Speech” in kanji. Japanese calligraphy art by Nao.

Speech

ben

This character came from more complicated characters whose common meaning is “to divide something.” A petal (kaben) and a valve (ben) are included in the meanings of this character. Among the other meanings of this character, let me focus on some words relating to “speech.” You might wonder how “speech” and “to divide” relate to each other. According to a dictionary, one of the original characters means “to distinguish reasons to make them clear by using words.”

Those who are good at speech is described as “ben ga tatsu.”

The suffix “–ben” indicates a dialect, following the names of areas. For example, kansai ben” is a dialect used in the Kansai region.

The kanji for “Speech” with the stroke order and arrows showing directions.

  1. Draw the rotated chevron on the top.
  2. Draw the dot at the end of previous stroke.
  3. Draw the horizontal stroke.
  4. Draw the sweeping stroke.
  5. Draw the vertical stroke.
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 39 other followers