Nihongo (meaning "Japanese language"), written vertically in kanji

Yokogaki (横書き, "horizontal writing") and tategaki (縦書き, "vertical writing") are two systems of Japanese writing. Created by User:Chameleon for Wikipedia. ... Created by User:Chameleon for Wikipedia. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Category Kanji (   漢字?, literally Han characters) are Chinese characters used in Japanese. ... Nihongo (meaning Japanese language), written in kanji This article describes the modern Japanese writing system and its history. ...

Traditionally, Japanese was written vertically in columns going from top to bottom and ordered from right to left, with each new column starting to the left of the preceeding one. This format is the same as that of Chinese, and the stroke order and stroke direction of Chinese and Japanese characters is designed to facilitate writing in this manner. Outline of the character 永, showing stroke order and direction. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 For other meanings of Kana, see Kana (disambiguation). ...

In modern times, Japanese is also written horizontally from left to right with successive rows going from top to bottom, in a manner identical to that of European languages such as English. This style is known as yokogaki. Most of the many indigenous languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. ...

Where a text is written in yokogaki format, pages are read in the same order as English books, with the binding at the left and pages progressing to the right. Tategaki books are printed the other way round, with the binding at the right, and pages progressing to the left.

Kanji and kana can be written horizontally or vertically. There are some small differences. In horizontal writing it is more common to use Arabic numerals, whereas Chinese numerals are more common in vertical text. The chōon mark, ー, which indicates a long vowel, is written going downwards in tategaki and going sideways in yokogaki. Rõmaji is usually written horizontally, or turned sideways when it appears in vertical text, with the base of the characters on the left. Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Category Kanji (   漢字?, literally Han characters) are Chinese characters used in Japanese. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 For other meanings of Kana, see Kana (disambiguation). ... Arabic numerals (also called Hindu numerals or Indian numerals ) are the most common set of symbols used to represent numbers. ... Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems: the ubiquitous system of Arabic numerals, along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the duration of a vowel sound. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 The title given to this article lacks diacritics because of certain technical limitations. ...

Right-to-left horizontal writing

Right-to-left horizontal writing is often seen in Japan, China, and Korea, for example on signs, on the right-hand side of vehicles, and on the right-hand side of stands selling food at festivals. However, this is a special form of tategaki, with columns of one character each going from right to left. Japanese has been seldom written in rows going from right to left with successive rows going downwards, even in pre-WW2 era, when right-to-left writing was prevalent. Hence, it does not resemble the normal right-to-left horizontal writing style of languages such as Arabic. Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

Historically, horizontal writing itself was an anomaly, written in this direction for technical reasons such as for fitting on a horizontal sign. Writing may also be in a right-to-left horizontal direction because it is archaic, or to simulate an archaic writing style.

Usage

An anti-smoking campaign advertisment on a Tokyo train, combining horizontal writing in Japanese and English.

Both tategaki and yokogaki are used in Japan today. Image File history File links Antismoking_ad,_Tokyo. ... Image File history File links Antismoking_ad,_Tokyo. ...

Tategaki is commonly used for novels, newspapers, comics, and many other forms of writing. Because it goes downwards, tategaki is invariably used on the spines of books. Some newspapers combine the two forms, using the vertical format for most articles but including some written vertically. Rurouni Kenshin manga, volume 1 (English version) Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics; outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. ...

Yokogaki is easier for some purposes; academic texts are usually written this way since they often include words and phrases in other languages, which are more easily incorporated horizontally. Scientific and mathematical texts are nearly always written horizontally, since in vertical writing equations must be turned sideways, making them more difficult to read. // What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ... Hi dustin ...

Similarly, English language textbooks, which contain many English words, are usually printed in yokogaki. This is not a fixed rule, however, and it is also common to see English words printed sideways in tategaki texts.

Computer text is usually presented in yokogaki format; see Japanese language and computers. In relation to the Japanese language and computers many adaptation issues arise, some unique to Japanese and others common to languages which use double-byte character encodings. ...

Business cards in Japan (meishi) are often printed vertically in Japanese on one side, and horizontally in English on the other. Postcards and handwritten letters may be arranged horizontally or vertically, but the more formal the letter the more likely it is to be written vertically. Envelope addresses are usually vertical, with the address on the left and the name of the person in the exact centre of the envelope. See also Japanese etiquette. A Meishi or 名刺 is the Japanese equivelant of a business card. ... Etiquette is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm (main article: Etiquette). ...

Cartoons

Combined tategaki and yokogaki in the manga Doraemon. Red numbers on arrows indicate sequence of reading lines. Pink numbers indicate sequence of panels of comic.

Japanese cartoons, also known as manga, tend to use vertical direction for text. Manga frames tend to flow in right-to-left horizontal direction. As a special case, frames in yonkoma mangas tend to flow in vertical direction. Page ordering is the same as books that use vertical direction: from right to left. Frames that are chronologically before or after each other use less spacing inbetween as a visual cue. Image File history File links Doraemon-tate-yoko. ... Image File history File links Doraemon-tate-yoko. ... Rurouni Kenshin manga, volume 1 (English version) Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics; outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. ... Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King Poster Doraemon [1] (jp: ドラえもん) by Hiroshi Fujimoto, a. ... Yonkoma manga (4コマ漫画, four cell manga), or 4-koma for short, is a Japanese comic strip format which consist of gags within four cells. ...

Some publishers that translate manga may choose to keep the original page order (a notable example is Shonen Jump magazine), while other publishers may reverse the pageflow with use of mirrored pages. Weekly Shonen Jump, issue 40 (Japanese version) Weekly Shonen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ Shūkan Shōnen Janpu), with a circulation of over 3 million, is one of the longest-running, weekly manga compilations in Japan. ...

Ruby characters

Ruby characters, (rubi, or furigana), which provide a phonetic guide for unusual or difficult to read characters, follow the direction of the main text (rubi shown in red): Ruby characters, also called ruby, rubi or furigana, are sometimes used in the typography of ideographic languages, especially Japanese and Chinese. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Furigana (ふりがな), also called yomigana, are kana printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. ...