In Japanese, the same word or reading can sometimes be written with different kanji, and the choice of character can slightly change the meaning or tone.
Take the word au, for example.
If you mean meeting a person, you normally write 会う. If you mean that two things match or fit, you write 合う. If you mean encountering something unfortunate or unexpected, you may write 遭う.
They are all pronounced au when spoken. In writing, however, the kanji immediately shows which meaning is intended.
But kanji do more than separate dictionary meanings. They can also change the feeling of a sentence.
For example, when writing about meeting someone, 会う is the normal everyday form. But 逢う, which is also read au, can give the expression a more emotional, romantic, or literary feeling.
Compare:
君に会いたい
“I want to see you.”
and
君に逢いたい
“I want to see you.”
They sound exactly the same when spoken. On the page, however, the second version can feel more emotional or poetic because of the kanji that was chosen.
This does not mean that kanji can simply be exchanged freely.
Words such as 会う, 合う, and 遭う normally have different meanings and are chosen according to context. In other cases, such as 会う and 逢う, a writer may deliberately choose a more literary or less common kanji to give the sentence a particular mood or emotional color.
There are also cases where the boundary is not perfectly clear. More than one kanji may seem possible depending on how the writer sees the situation, and native Japanese speakers sometimes hesitate over which one to use.
So kanji do more than represent sound. They can show which meaning a writer has in mind and, in some cases, add a particular feeling to the word.
Two words may sound identical when spoken, but the kanji chosen on the page can reveal a little more about how the writer wants the reader to understand them.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, “Examples of How to Distinguish Kanji with the Same Reading”
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, “On-Kun Index of the Joyo Kanji Table”
