Perhaps a dumb question, but something that I was wondering and couldn't find a clear answer via search. Since 校 is the kanji for school, why do we also need the kanji for learning 学 to say "school" (学校)? As a westerner, it seems as though schools always involve learning.
Is there some difference in nuance I'm missing? Is there perhaps a historical meaning for 校 that is more like place of training or practice, which evolved into school?
Answer
Thousands of Japanese 熟語 were created in this way.
- 岩石 (がんせき) ≒ 岩 (いわ) (rock)
- 河川 (かせん) ≒ 川 (かわ) (river)
- 絵画 (かいが) ≒ 絵 (え) (picture)
- 自己 (じこ) ≒ 己 (おのれ) (oneself)
- 身体 (しんたい) ≒ 体 (からだ) (body)
Japanese Wikipedia describes a simple reason for this. One kanji character was not long enough to be distinguishable with each other when pronounced with on-yomi. There are only a few hundred different on-yomi in use. Naturally, people needed to stack two similar characters to construct one 熟語 usable in everyday speech.
類義語を並列させた構造は非常に数が多い。これは以下のような理由による。
漢語の本家である中国語において、一つ一つの単語は単音節的であり、1字が1語を表現する漢字は原則的に1音節の読みしかもたない。しかしその一方で中国語は古代のものに比べ、音韻がより単純なものへと徐々に変化していった。このような過程で1音節では語の弁別が困難になるという事態が生じ、その結果、並列構造の漢語は増加し続けてきたという。
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