variety of diff. questions

[dudnaito]

1) when i watch anime, everyone seems to refer to themselves as "ore" and rarely "watashi." Frankly, ore sounds a bit easier and more natural to me, but unless i've been misinformed, ore's considered kinda self-aggrandizing and inappropriate in most circumstances. is it ok?

2) in certain kanji, such as 遠い... that line in the bottom portion. it's either straight vertical like the kanji above or it's very squiggly (looks like a 3) depending if you know what i mean. which one is accurate?

3) certain kanji seem to mean the same thing. For instance, 上る or 登る。 They both are noboru... but they mean the exact same thing ?

4) last question: anyone know a resource that'll help me understand kanji etymology. Sometimes i don't understand why a kanji is part of a word.

Thanks for any and all replies. Hope to be at a level to contribute back sometime soon.

[QuackingShoe]

1) Depends on where you live and who you're talking to. It's a really widespread beginner myth that 'ore' is almost never used. It's common, as well as boku. To the point where I was reading something where someone didn't know who was texting her phone, but the person used watashi, so she assumed it must be a girl.

Anyway, you don't use it in formal situations.

2) For handwriting? Handwriting doesn't have a lot of relation to computer fonts. It's pretty squiggly though. Here's a random site I just pulled off google: http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanji ... enDocument

3) The same pronunciation of a word with different kanji involve different nuances. In some cases it's just nuance, but in others it's blatantly wrong to use a certain kanji in certain places. In your particular case, 上る is the most common, and is often used in the other instances as well. But uniquely, it's more focused on just going up places in general. Including up a hill, up the river, etc. 登る involves more climbing. Trees, mountains. 昇る is more of an 'ascend' idea. It's use for the sun, for example.

All words that have multiple kanji that are common are like this. Some have alternate, rare kanji that don't actually change the nuance significantly. For example, I've never gotten a straight answer on the difference between 噛む/咬む, and I'm not really convinced there is one. The word is usually written in hiragana, anyway.

4) There isn't much reason to know. You could study it if you're simply interested in the etymology, but don't expect it to help you understand modern use. These things have been around for thousands of years. It's, what, the oldest writing system? And the Japanese only borrowed it, and then screwed it up - over the course of more than a thousand years. The etymology just isn't very strong anymore.
Either way, I don't have any specific references for you, sorry.

[Belton]

4) last question: anyone know a resource that'll help me understand kanji etymology. Sometimes i don't understand why a kanji is part of a word.

Words seem fairly self evident (if only in hindsight) if you know the individual characters. Unless the kanji were used only for their associated sounds (ateji). In any case I don't think I've ever seen a resource discussing words as such other than the blog on this site.
http://blogs.japanesepod101.com/?page_id=679

I have come across a few discussing individual kanji.

I find the subject interesting in itself. I also find it useful to know when the present graphic symbol was once two (or more) different symbols that have been simplified to the same shape. It's easier to remember a symbol if it has meaning, to have it as more than just an abstract shape. For some people it's more satisfying to try to know the actual derivation rather than make one up.

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/index.cfm

In print, in English Henshall is an interesting book.
http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Japan ... 0804820384

In Japanese, these childrens books give an etymology for the 1006 grade school characters.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/reader/403920350X/
Although I wonder at times if there hasn't been fudging for the purposes of teaching the characters.

[dudnaito]

thanks a lot guys. Really appreciate the meticulous explanations.

[Javizy]

Yuuichi posted a link to an etymology site some time ago, but I've lost it. It was all in Japanese though, so might be a bit difficult. Like Belton mentioned, a lot of the weird combinations are due to substitute characters used for their sound rather than meaning, so it's not essential to know why.

Quack is definitely right about the personal pronouns. When you're speaking to friends, ore is perfectly acceptable, if not the most natural, for young guys. In fact, someone was making fun of me for using boku. Watashi either sounds very girly, or very gaijin. It should be your last choice, since you can get away with boku even in some very formal situations. I've seen people using it during job interviews, for example.

[dudnaito]

regarding the confusion w/kanji.

Take for instance 用心する：to be careful...
does it just translate to use/caution....-_-

[cmwatkins]

I was also going to mention Henshall, but Belton beat me to the punch.

Other than that, I just wanted to mention that, re: personal pronouns in anime, my favorite is Baikinman's habit of referring to himself as "ore-sama."

[Jessi]

Yuuichi posted a link to an etymology site some time ago, but I've lost it. It was all in Japanese though, so might be a bit difficult. Like Belton mentioned, a lot of the weird combinations are due to substitute characters used for their sound rather than meaning, so it's not essential to know why.

Could this be it? I sometimes use this for looking up 語源:

http://gogen-allguide.com/