Editing Phono-semantic matching (section)

===Japanese===
{{Main|Ateji|jukujikun}}

In modern Japanese, loanwords are generally represented phonetically via [[katakana]]. However, in earlier times loanwords were often represented by [[kanji]] (Chinese characters), a process called {{transliteration|ja|[[ateji]]}} when used for phonetic matching, or {{transliteration|ja|[[jukujikun]]}} when used for semantic matching. Some of these continue to be used; the characters chosen may correspond to the sound, the meaning, or both.

In most cases the characters used were chosen only for their matching sound or only for their matching meaning. For example, in the word {{lang|ja-Hani|寿司}} ([[sushi]]), the two characters are respectively read as {{transliteration|ja|su}} and {{transliteration|ja|shi}}, but the character {{lang|ja-Hani|寿}} means "one's natural life span" and {{lang|ja-Hani|司}} means "to administer", neither of which has anything to do with the food{{snd}} this is {{transliteration|ja|ateji}}. Conversely, in the word {{lang|ja-Hani|煙草}} ({{transliteration|ja|tabako}}) for "[[tobacco]]", the individual kanji respectively mean "smoke" and "herb", which corresponds to the meaning, while none of their possible readings have a phonetic relationship to the word {{transliteration|ja|tabako}}{{snd}} this is {{transliteration|ja|[[jukujikun]]}}.

In some cases, however, the kanji were chosen for both their semantic and phonetic values, a form of phono-semantic matching. A stock example is {{lang|ja-Hani|倶楽部}} ({{transliteration|ja|kurabu}}) for "[[Club (organization)|club]]", where the characters can be interpreted loosely in sequence as "together-fun-place" (which has since been borrowed into Chinese during the early 20th century with the same meaning, including the individual characters, but with a pronunciation that differs considerably from the original English and the Japanese, {{transliteration|zh|jùlèbù}}). Another example is {{lang|ja-Hani|合羽}} ({{transliteration|ja|kappa}}) for the [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|capa}}, a kind of [[raincoat]]. The characters can mean "wings coming together", as the pointed {{lang|pt|capa}} resembles a bird with wings folded together.