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Is there kanji for しか as in

商品がひとつしかありません。

Earthliŋ
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paullb
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  • I don't think しかし and しか are related etymologically, but on the off chance... 然し is the kanji there – ssb Apr 04 '14 at 04:07
  • @ssb I wouldn't think they come from the same root. – Szymon Apr 04 '14 at 04:08
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    Yeah, more a potentially interesting "fyi" than anything. The more I look the more I think しか just doesn't have kanji... I wonder how it was written in manyougana? – ssb Apr 04 '14 at 04:18
  • I've submitted etymology requests for both words in the English Wiktionary. I've made a new manyogana tag too and added it here and to a few previous applicable questions. I find this pretty interesting myself. – hippietrail Apr 04 '14 at 04:26
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    @hippietrail Please excuse my ignorance but where can I see those requests in English Wikitonary? – paullb Apr 04 '14 at 05:16
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    @ssb I don't think it's old enough for that to be relevant. The earliest cite in 日国 is dated 1784か. Martin in *A Reference Grammar of Japanese* reports on p.80 that Ōtsuki derives *sika* from a contraction of *siki* (as in *kore-siki*) plus the particle *wa*. He says *siki* is of uncertain etymology; a couple suggestions he gives are that it's a variant of *soko* or a shortening of *suk[os]i*, but he doesn't appear to find these explanations satisfying. –  Apr 04 '14 at 05:27
  • @paullb: Don't worry, you're not ignorant. Many features of the English Wiktionary are extremely well hidden. I only know some things about it because I've been a contributor since 2002 and was formerly very deeply involved. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Requests_for_etymology_(Japanese) – hippietrail Apr 04 '14 at 08:18
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    I had no idea it was such a new particle! Learning new things every day.. – ssb Apr 04 '14 at 08:39
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    しかも　and しかし can be written 然も　and 然し. The etymology is different, but I think in spite of that, this might be a good choice of kanji spelling for しか if such a thing needed to be invented. The rationale being is that it comes from existing grammatical connecting words. – Kaz Apr 07 '14 at 19:18
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    Kaz I think you're spot on, but unfortunately we can't just answer as if we need a kanji to be invented. But I do agree with you, that is the kanji i'd go for too. As it stands though, if we used it in a sentence, Japanese people would look at it and go "What?" (I checked) which is enough for me to say its not in the 'current' Japanese language. –  Apr 08 '14 at 13:18

1 Answers1

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Is there kanji for しか as in. 商品がひとつしかありません。

No. There is no kanji for this usage of しか.

No evidence of a kanji for this しか can be found in any of the aggregated dictionaries:

Weblio

WWWJDIC

goo

Community
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    +1 for your courage to tell the truth. 「しか」 in that context is a particle and if one knows even the very basic Japanese, one knows only bad thngs could happen if people started writing particles in kanji. Paticles can easily be sandwitched in between kanji words, which would make Japanese a language almost impossible to read. –  Apr 07 '14 at 23:13
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    @TokyoNagoya What do you make of the particle だけ, which can be written 丈? I thought that, even though particles are written with 仮名 in contemporary Japanese, some particles can in principle be written with 漢字. (More examples: 程, 等, 迄, ...) – Earthliŋ Apr 07 '14 at 23:24
  • What about what is written here (http://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%97%E3%81%8B) or the readings for 而 (http://www.kanjijiten.net/jiten/2801.html)? – virmaior Apr 08 '14 at 02:41
  • So, the first link I'm not sure what you're referring to but I'll assume its 然. In the second one: しかして=而して=Thus/and so/and. I'm not sure that's the same meaning but I could be convinced it might be. For example: 'One item **and** nothing' in this sense. I think maybe we can. Native speakers what do you think? @TokyoNagoya? –  Apr 08 '14 at 02:55
  • Is it the same しか as in 然ながら？(http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/examples/jn2/94415/m0u/) –  Apr 08 '14 at 03:05
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    I think the better question which is posted above is why are you answering a question that you don't know the answer to? (clearly, しか is written exclusively in 仮名 in modern Japanese, but I assume the question of whether it has a kanji is more historical). – virmaior Apr 08 '14 at 05:26
  • I think I answered the question fine but then all of a sudden something new came about - is that so unheard of? How do you ever really know the answer to something? How can you prove that you know something as fact? –  Apr 08 '14 at 13:04
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    You can't prove that a fact is in fact a fact, so to speak, but you can do better than present a simple guess (without references) as an answer. – Earthliŋ Apr 09 '14 at 17:33
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    @TokyoNagoya the partical ヘ also has a Kanji（方）which I first seen in [this question](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/15860/how-are-the-noun-%E6%96%B9%E3%80%90%E3%81%B8%E3%80%91-and-the-particle-%E3%81%B8-related) – phuclv 劉永福 May 11 '14 at 15:36