Uncovering the Role of Phonetic Radicals in Japanese Kanji via Reconceptualization of Regularity and Consistency

Kanji learning poses a considerable challenge to learners from an alphabetic background due to the difference in print-to-sound mapping systems. However, phonetic radicals have been identified as a tool that supports this mapping and facilitates character learning and reading in Chinese (e.g., Anderson et al., 2003; Chen et al., 2014; Kim et al., 2016). This suggests the potential of phonetic radicals in supporting Kanji learning as well. Since the utility of phonetic radicals in reading Kanji is still unclear, this study first reconceptualizes regularity and consistency , which are key constructs that reflect the phonetic radical’s contribution to the character’s reading, to fit the Kanji context. It then measures these constructs among 1,481 characters selected from commonly used (i.e., Jōyō) Kanji. Subsequently, the percentages of jukugo where regular and consistent characters can be read by the phonetic radical were examined. The analysis reveals that learning the single graph-to-sound correspondence of 160 phonetic radicals allows one to read 383 characters (i.e., 17.9% of Jōyō Kanji) in 97% of jukugo tokens where they are used in modern Japanese print. These results underscore the high utility of phonetic radicals in reading Kanji. Pedagogical implications and future research directions are discussed.