Hi people. I was wondering why 頁 (ページ) exists. Unless I am wrong, this word means “page” and it’s a foreign word (from English). Why a foreign word would have his own kanji? Why don’t they write it in katakana like every other foreign words instead of 頁. Is it just because it’s convenient to use it as a unit (240 pages -> 240頁)?
Just a little curiosity, thanks.
3 comments
Because there’s is a Chinese character (漢字) for page… As there’s a way of saying anything with Chinese characters… The question is why some Japanese consider cool to use English words and transform them using katakana. Maybe the end of WWII has something to do with this…
ページ may be an English loanword, but 頁 is a millenia old Chinese Character.
In Japanese there are many valid readings for 頁, even if the English loanword has become more common.
There are lots of western loan words that have kanji. Some, like 珈琲（コーヒー）use kanji which have a reading that matches the loanword but an unrelated meaning, and others like your example and 煙草（タバコ）use kanji with a matching meaning but not a matching reading.