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+--- Thread: 令 Alternative form "Orders" Kanji? Frame #1401 (/thread-353.html)
令 Alternative form "Orders" Kanji? Frame #1401 - tk2000 - 2007-01-21
Are there two alternative forms for the Kanji for "orders"? I looked up this kanji in "The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary" and in frame #1259 it shows the kanji the same way as in RTK1 #1401, however in the stroke order diagram the character has a different form under the umbrella primative? In fact depending on the font you use in Microsoft Word, this character appears differently. Are both forms acceptable? Is one form more popular than another?
令 Alternative form "Orders" Kanji? Frame #1401 - JimmySeal - 2007-01-22
I think the one that looks more like マ at the bottom is generally the more accepted handwritten style.
令 Alternative form "Orders" Kanji? Frame #1401 - Raichu - 2007-05-13
Oops didn't notice this thread until just now.
There are a number of kanji that have different handwritten and printed form. It's just like the letters "a" and "g" in English are different when printed, e.g., look at the "g" in the Google logo.
I learnt "orders" from my old kanji dictionary which used handwritten kanji and used printed ones only for example compounds. It used the form with the katakana mu at the bottom. It took me a while to figure out when I came across it in Heisig that it was the same character.
Similarly, the printed kanji for "north" has the intersection of the second and third strokes different in printed and written forms. Likewise "enter" is like "person" with a horizontal line at the top in printed form, but like a lambda in handwritten form.
Interestingly when I've seen Chinese write, they tend to prefer the printed forms. I wonder if the differences are Japanese variations, or whether they preserve and earlier form of the kanji.