KANJI: KA nani (what?)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

The radical for person (at left) combined with the radical meaning can, here acting phonetically to express the meaning "to bear." The meaning of a person bending bearing (a heavy load) is still a minor meaning for this character in Chinese. However, in Japanese this character is purely used to phonetically express what?

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: KA
kun-yomi: nani nan nani- nan-

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: aga

English Definitions:

1. KA, nan, nani: what?
2. dore: which; who?
3. nan da: What? Why? Well! What do you mean?!?
4. nan da ka: some way or another.
5. nan dattara: if you like.
6. nan de: why, what for?
7. nan demo: anything; by all means; probably.
8. nani: Oh! What? Why, well.
9. nani ka: something, anything.
10. nanikashira: something or other.
11. nanni(mo), nani(mo): nothing, no (with neg.).
12. nan ni seyo, nani(shiro), nani(se): at any rate, anyhow.
13. nani yori no: most, best.
14. nani yori mo:first of all.
15. nan nara: if you wish, if you can, if desirable.
16. nan no: what, what kind of?
17. nani, nan to, nan te: what, whatever; What, How? Look here!
18. nan toka: some way or another.
19. nan tomo: nothing, quite.
20. nan to nareba: for, because.
21. izu(re): where, which, who?
22. izu(re) mo: both; (neg). neither.
23. izu(re) seyo, izu(re) ni shitemo: either way, in any case.
24. nan da ga, nan da kedo: to speak frankly.
25. nani(ka), nani(yara): some, any, something, anything.
26. nan(narito): anything, whatever.
27. nan(taru): How?!? What?!? (beatiful, etc).
28. dou(shite): how; why; absurd, on the contrary.
29. dou(shitemo): by all means; surely; no matter why you do; by no means; willy-nilly; after all; all things considered.
30. dou(se): anyway, in any case, after all, at all (neg. implication).
31. nani(kanitsuke): concerning many things.
32. nani(kuso): an interjection of determination.
33. nani(watomoare): nevertheless, anyway.
34. nan-: some (thoudands).

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 169
Henshall: 80

Unicode Encoded Version:

何

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

何人 (nannin): how many people?
何回 (nankai): how many times?
何日 (nannichi): how many days, what day?
何処 (doko, dokoiro, izuko, izuku): where?
何時 (itsu): when, how soon?
何時間 (nan jikan): how many hours?

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