Re: [tlug] [tlug-digest] OT (sorta) A Langauge Question

[Edward Wright <edw@example.com>]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2005 at 01:00:31PM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> >>>>> "Edward" == Edward Wright <edw@example.com> writes:
> 
>     Edward> There are a LOT of Japanese words I don't know. I have to
>     Edward> look them up much more often than I need to look up
>     Edward> Japanese equivalents of English words.
> 
> Sure.  I was referring to the "furigana" part.  In the dictionaries
> I've seen the dictionary entry is given as "hiragana (KANJI)", so what
> are the furigana for?

Ah. Never thought about it. The entries are hiragana, followed by the
kanji, with furigana. In that sense I guess the furigana are redundant.
However, the example usages, and derived words (compounds) are written
in kanji with furigana. There of course the furigana are useful.