Square Enix recently sent out a newsletter to Japanese players about Final Fantasy XIV since official JP site had been updated with some new information. If you are a fan, you might want to check out the small writeup I did over at ZAM.

However, there was something I wanted to elaborate more on here – the clever kanji alliteration that Square Enix used to describe the varied roles of crafters in Eorzea.

作る – To make some on a personal level that has no set pattern. Examples include 夕食を作る “make dinner,” or 紙飛行機を作る “make a paper airplane.” This is probably the most common form any individual would use to talk about making things in the course of daily life.

This kanji is both an ideograph 会意, and 形声 “keisei” type kanji, where one part indicates the pronunciation. 乍 depicts a blade cutting into the materials being used to make something. Adding 人 to the left side associates this action with being manmade, and 乍 acts in a dual role, indicating the on-yomi サ、サク

——-

造る – To manufacture something on a large scale, usually from a set pattern. 任天堂は花札を造る “Nintendo makes Hanafuda cards.”

The kanji 造 is another ideograph that combines two pictures. 告 is a cow→牛 being confined→囗 by being tied to a post – the idea that two things are being combined to achieve an effect. The radical shin’nyuu 辵 then depicts advancement towards a goal. Together, they make 造 and mean assembling separate elements of something to complete a final product.

——-

創る – This kanji gives “make” the meaning of “create,” in that you are making something completely new. For example, 三菱は新モデルを創り出しました。 “Mitsubishi put out a new model.”

This is a case where the kanji is being used in an unintended manner, meaning you would not find the reading “tsuku-ru” listed for 創 in many textbooks. More often you would find 創 using on-yomi ソウ to lend its meaning to compounds, such as 創刊 “launch [a new publication]” or 創立 “found [a new establishment].” However, there are instances where kanji are used in ways outside their accepted daily usage forms to add their nuanced meaning to a broader term, i.e. “make”

As for the character itself, 創 is a 形声 “keisei” type, with 倉 lending it’s pronunciation ソウ and 刀 depicting a blade cutting into materials used for making something. However, the idea here is that cutting into the original material is the first step in the process of creating goods, and therefore the kanji carries the meaning of “beginning” and “creation.”

進める – To advance or progress something forward, both literally and figuratively. Examples include: 時計を進める “set the clock forward,” 軍を進める “move the troops forward,” or 計画を進める “move a plan forward.”

This kanji is made from shin’nyuu 辵, a radical meaning “advance,” and tori 隹, a radical representing birds. In this way, the kanji depicts a bird soaring forward through the air.

——-

勧める – To recommend to another. This is the 勧める that gives us オススメ, which means “recommended [for the customer]” – a label often found on merchandise.

The original kanji was

勸
the left side has two purposes: first, it indicates the on-yomi is カン. Second, the two mouths 口 combined with power 力 on the right give this kanji the meaning of “the power of many mouths [to influence another].”
勧 is the simplified form in common use today.

——-

薦める – Quite similar to 勧める, this kanji means to speak highly of a person or thing in order to get someone to do something. For example, to pitch an idea アイデアを薦める or fast-talk a customer into buying a used car 中古車を薦める.

The kanji depicts grass (草冠, the three line radical at the top, 早→草 ) being purposefully gathered around an animal to encourage it to eat.

断つ – To quit, stop or cut off something in progress. For example, 退路を断つ “cut off a retreat,” or 鎖を断つ “break the chain.”

絶つ – To end or cut off a status, like as one shared between people. 連絡を絶つ “to cut off communication,” or 縁を絶つ “to sever ties.”

裁つ – To physically cut and shape cloth. This same kanji is used in 裁縫 sewing.