# More Kanji Fun **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192 "2006-05-03T02:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/1 "2006-05-03T02:43:43Z")
I sat down this evening to translate a t-shirt for a friend, but after a few moments I realized that it is kanji, not hanzi. So, I present it to the Japanese speakers on the board. The shirt has four characters on it in a box shape (2x2). I’m assuming it is read starting with the top right, then bottom right, then top left, then bottom left…but it’s a t-shirt, so who knows? I am able to identify three of the characters. Top right: 理 Bottom right: 亜 Bottom left: 志 The fourth character, the top left, has the character for bird (chinese niao3) on the right side of it, and the character for nine (chinese jiu3) on the left. I assume it is some kind of bird, but I can’t find it. Does anyone know this fourth character? Even knowing it, I’m not sure I could hazard a translation. Does this make more sense to a Japanese speaker? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/2 "2006-05-03T03:01:40Z")
鳩 (hato) is a pigeon or dove. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/3 "2006-05-03T03:08:13Z")
Oooh, thanks. Any guess on a translation? ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/4 "2006-05-03T03:43:16Z")
What makes you think it is Japanese? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/5 "2006-05-03T05:54:56Z")
The bottom right character is, AFAIK, not part of the modern Chinese lexicon. I believe that character is written slightly differently in both traditional and simplified Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/6 "2006-05-03T06:13:37Z")
OTOH, I don’t know how long ago that character got phased out. I just know it’s no longer used on the mainland, HK, or Taiwan. If the characters are Chinese, the bird one also apparently means “collect or assemble.” I’m in dire need of a native speaker here. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/7 "2006-05-03T06:20:30Z")
As a variant of 亞, you mean? In any case, the text on the shirt seems meaningless to me. I guess it could be an odd name. In Japanese 亜 is usually only used phonetically for the sound ‘a’ or to stand for Asia in some compounds. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/8 "2006-05-03T06:23:19Z")
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that 亜 is written either as 亚 or 亞 in contemporary Chinese. I guess I’d go with the name theory too. But I’m not very satisfied by it. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-kanji-fun/355192/9 "2006-05-03T06:47:33Z")
Could be a job for [http://www.hanzismatter.com](http://www.hanzismatter.com)!