Why do some Japanese words consist of two kanji that mean the same thing?

So I’m now at the point where I’ve learned 1480 jouyou kanji through RTK and I’m beginning to search the meaning of words more and more while watching shows or reading Japanese text, so I can be prepared for when I start learning vocabulary. Anyway, while doing that, I’ve come across some words that consist of kanji that have essentially the same meaning. 選択 for example consists of 選 (select, choose) and 択 (select, choose).

Is there a historical reason for that or is Jisho just not very accurate to that stuff, so it ends up translating both kanji to the same thing?

8 comments
  1. Ok, dont take me too seriously because I’m not very sure, but
    I think the reason is that in Chinese most words have at least two syllables. Due to many homophones the first syllable is not enough to understand what word the speaker is using. So they put a second syllable with basically the same meaning.

    Lets use “bark” as an example:
    It can mean the sound a dog makes or the outside of a tree
    So bark is the first syllable
    The complete word could be something like
    “bark-outside-of-tree”
    Or
    “bark-sound”

    With bark being the first kanji/syllable of the word.
    I hope this makes sense.

  2. In most cases they don’t or at least didn’t mean exactly the same thing. They had or have a similar meaning and translated into English they are the same.

  3. As a classical Chinese learner,I found it that in most case,people use one character to experess one [meaning.It](https://meaning.It)’s also the same in Tangut.I think it’s a certain rule in Sino-Tibetan language.

    However,along with the develpment of the world,we need to express more meanings.So we need to whether creater new characters,or combine characters to create words,which makes it a custom to use 2 characters to express 1 meaning,even if the contained characters have a closed meaning.

  4. Because 選択 is not a native Japanese word, it comes from Chinese and needs every help it can get to get rid of homonymy. Were you to use an actual Japanese word えらぶ with the same meaning, you could freely write it either as 選ぶ or as 択ぶ.

  5. I was also wondering this since I recently added the separate kanji to my flashcards.
    It not the exact same but I don’t understand why certain words like ‘音楽’ for example, need ‘音’ when ‘楽’ supposedly already means music? Is it more like a just because thing? Like how the word queue in English has 4 more letter after it despite Q making the same sound. It’s confusing.

  6. I think that’s because kanji are originally Chinese and these words which consist of two kanji with the same meaning appeared because of the problems of spoken Chinese, you can check out [this video,](https://youtu.be/BMI6Mbx8lbw) I’m sure it will explain it better than I

  7. It’s asking for a simple answer to a complex question. As some people have mentioned, sometimes they are using kanji for sounds for words that originated elsewhere. Sometimes it’s doubled to add emphasis. Sometimes there are subtle meanings within the kanji. Kanji change meaning over time. It’s also a little like asking why there are two words that mean the same thing, like select and choose.

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