Learn about the mountain radical 山
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to the Japanese Kanji video series. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the "mountain" radical. |
| Take a look at these kanji characters. Can you guess what they mean? |
| By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to grasp the meaning behind these kanji characters. |
| 山, 岩, 嵐, 岸 |
| First off, can you spot the radical in all of these kanji characters? |
| It's this part here. |
| 山 |
| This particular radical is called... |
| やま or やまへん. |
| When it's used on the left side, it's called specifically やまへん because へん means "left-position" radical. |
| It's otherwise known as the "mountain" radical and it's used in some of the most common of all kanji characters. Let's take a look at it in more detail. |
| Meaning |
| The meaning behind this particular kanji is "mountain." |
| 山 |
| When this radical appears as a part of another kanji, like in these examples, the appearance changes slightly. When it's a component like this, it adds the meaning of "mountain" to the entire kanji character. |
| 山, 岩, 嵐, 岸 |
| From left to right, the first kanji means "mountain," the second means "boulder, rock" the third character means "storm, tempest" and fourth character means "bank, shore, coast." |
| 2. 岩 |
| The second kanji has the "mountain" radical, paired with this second character. This second character is also a kanji in itself. This character means "stone." 石 |
| You can think of this kanji as imagining a big stone from a mountain. So this kanji character means "boulder, rock." |
| 3. 嵐 |
| The third kanji has the "mountain" radical paired with 風, the kanji for "wind." |
| Here’s an easy way to remember this: just imagine mountains of wind. In other words, a "storm." |
| 4. 岸 |
| The last kanji has the "mountain" radical and means "bank, shore, coast." |
| For more ways to remember these characters and many more kanji examples that include the "mountain" radical, go to JapanesePod101.com and check the Lesson Notes PDF. OK. Let's move on! |
| Common positions |
| The "mountain" radical has more than one common positions. If it sits in the top-position it connects with another radical below it and shrinks in size. |
| As seen in the original examples for "boulder, rock," "storm, tempest" and "bank, shore, coast." |
| It can also be in the left-position, like in this example meaning "mountain pass, climax, crest," where it's squished vertically. |
| 峠 |
| Okay. Now let's learn how to write this radical. |
| Stroke Order |
| Now let's take a look at the stroke order of the "mountain" radical. The "mountain" radical is very simple. There are only three strokes. |
| When the radical is on its own, it looks like this: |
| 山 |
| Start with one long vertical stroke. |
| The second stroke should start at the left, around the middle of the vertical stroke. |
| Go down and then all the way across the bottom of the first stroke in a horizontal line. |
| Now make a short vertical stroke, extending just a little bit below your second stroke. |
| When this radical is a part of another kanji, it's squished vertically or shrinks in size. |
| Like in these examples... |
| 峠, 岩 |
| And that's it! You're done! |
| Common Readings |
| When the "mountain" radical is on its own, the kanji can be read as... |
| 山 |
| サン、やま |
| And when the "mountain" radical is a part of another kanji... |
| ガン、いわ |
| 岩 |
| for the kanji meaning "boulder, rock." |
| あらし |
| 嵐 |
| for the "storm, tempest" kanji. And... |
| ガン、きし |
| 岸 |
| for the "bank, shore, coast" kanji. |
| Lesson Review |
| In this lesson, you learned about the "mountain" radical. |
| You also learned the kanji characters for "boulder, rock," "storm, tempest" and "bank, shore, coast" in which this radical appears. |
| It's most commonly found in the top- or left-positions, as in these two examples. |
| And it's written with 3 strokes, starting with one long, vertical stroke, then an other stroke starting at the left, around the middle of the vertical stroke, which goes down and then all the way across the bottom of the first stroke in a horizontal line, ending with a short, vertical stroke, extending just a little bit below your second stroke. |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn about another common radical used in some of the most common and basic kanji characters, the "eat" radical. |
| See you in the next lesson. Bye! |
| Bye~! |
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