Words Written in Kana Are Named Faster Than the Same Words Written in Kanji

Abstract

Two adult Japanese named colors written in Kanji, a logographic orthography, and in Kana, a syllabary. Although colors are more frequently written in the Kanji form and although Kanji are more compact graphic representations of words in general, latency to vocalization was consistently less for the Kana. This superiority is attributed to the closer relation of Kana to phonology and, therefore, to speech. The demonstrated greater facility for naming Kana accords with observations in the literature that very familiar visual configurations are consistently named faster when they conform to a phonographic principle than when they do not.