Ki, Sa, and Chi in Hiragana

[Incog Neato]

Take a look at the stroke order for ki:

japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/hiragana02.html

Compare it to the printed version on the page (i.e. き). The mini Flash video showing the stroke order shows it written in 4 strokes. The way it's shown in print is 3 strokes.

My question: Why is there two ways of writing the damn character?

Honestly, when I first learned hiragana, I learned to write ki with 4 strokes. Similarily, sa and chi also have one extra stroke compared to their typical typography versions (i.e. さ and ち).

Is it a matter of preference? Or is it something like printing versus writing?

[Musa-Revived]

Both "ki"s are correct. Just a matter of preference between which "font" you like. I usually use the one with the 4 strokes. Same goes with "sa", I use the one that is written in 2 parts.

In fact they are not the only ones. There's "fu" and "yu" that have slightly different ways of writing as well.

I can't say for sure why but perhaps it originated from different interpretations of the original calligraphy. Perhaps the guy trying to transfer the calligraphy onto writing with pen couldn't tell if the faint parts of the hiragana were there or not, thus resulting in a dismembered version of "ki"

[Musa-Revived]

No, they're not wrong. At least that's what my Japanese friend told me. Perhaps a Japanese major in Japanese can answer.

[Skeletore has a boner]

Since I have a Japanese degree I *will* answer...at the end of the day no one honestly cares about your stroke order as long as it's still legible.

[Musa-Revived]

Yes that is true. Nobody cares how you write the alphabet "a" in apple so as long you know it's apple.

[Incog Neato]

:D!

Thank you all for your insight. I posted it question cuz, for some reason, I was finding it difficult to find the damn answer through Google. I don't think I was using enough proper keywords or something.

(My boyfriend was also being an ass that night and arguing that ki and them shouldn't have an extra stroke and that he's never seen them written like that. 9_9)

Oddly enough, I did a search while at work the other day and found someone asking the same thing about the hiragana ki. Weird. ^^

Now about stroke order, don't those electronic dictionaries and stuff get picky about them, especially kanji?

If I'm using the PenPower stylus thig to write Chinese characters, it'll start giving you the results you aren't looking for if you don't follow the generally accepted way of writing them. D:

[Skeletore has a boner]

Now about stroke order, don't those electronic dictionaries and stuff get picky about them, especially kanji?

Most dictionaries operate by stroke *count* not order.

*The reason for that being there is no such thing as "generally accepted orders"...there's a surprising amount of variation between different regions.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Protip: Chi is a completely superfluous character; like c is in English.