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+--- Thread: How many Kanji/Hanzi ARE there? (/thread-11587.html)
How many Kanji/Hanzi ARE there? - Givala - 2014-02-16
I mean, in total, since the first character was created, how many exist?
50.000? 100.000? More?
Does anyone actually know?
Tried googling it, but no concrete answer.
How many Kanji/Hanzi ARE there? - john_sabater - 2014-02-16
About 80,000. Most of the are obsolete ones though. You'll just need about 3000 to read literature stuff.
How many Kanji/Hanzi ARE there? - yudantaiteki - 2014-02-16
Givala Wrote:I mean, in total, since the first character was created, how many exist?It's really impossible to say, because first you have to define what is a "character" (for instance, are the symbols on the Shang dynasty-era oracle bones "Chinese characters"?). It's also very hard to say what defines a new character rather than just a minor variant in handwriting style.
50.000? 100.000? More?
Does anyone actually know?
Tried googling it, but no concrete answer.
The Morohashi dictionary has a little over 50,000, and I believe there are Chinese dictionaries that are over 80,000. However, the vast majority (probably 85% or so) of these characters are simply variant forms of other characters. Sometimes the variants differ in very small ways, just a single line or dot difference.
How many Kanji/Hanzi ARE there? - Givala - 2014-02-16
Hmm... Interesting.
Thank you both for answering!
