Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo View Post
Why is it that Japanese language itself does not differentiate as much between animals as English or other European languages (e.g. turtle vs tortoise, mouse vs rat vs shrew vs vole, whale vs rorqual vs orc, or using the kanji for fish [魚] in the kanji for whale [鯨]) ?
1) I think you should ask the Chinese about that.

2) Aren't you assuming a bit too much in the way of knowledge of biological classifications 3000 years ago? It's nice that we know this now, but I doubt the Chinese knew it when they were creating the characters.

3) 魚 doesn't always mean "fish," but also has the meaning of a creature that lives in water (according to the 新漢語林: 水中に住む動物の総称。) Incidentally, it also has the meaning of an ornamental dressing that one would wear on one's clothes. This meaning comes from the practice of government officials using fish shaped badges on their waists to prove their positions during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). It can even have the meaning of a horse with white hair around its eyes (no reason given for that one).

Kanji have a long history, so it's not always possible to say "I know X means Y on its own, so it must have that meaning everywhere."

By the way, "tele" and "homo" in English are now considered words that are mere abbreviations of fuller words ("television" and "homosexual," respectively), and they depart from their original meanings as bound morphemes ("distant" and "same," respectively). They have both already combined with other elements with their new meanings: "televangelist" and "homophobe" are examples. While not exactly the same, the creation of kanji bears some similarity to this process, so it's not like Chinese or Japanese are the only ones to do this.

Also, in scientific texts the Japanese use katakana for animal names anyway, in which case the kanji becomes irrelevant to scientific classification. If you use the kanji the words carry other meanings, whereas the katakana word is sterile and scientific. For example, 狼 can mean a person who appears sensitive and kind, but will attack as soon as they are shown an opening, whereas オオカミ only means a predatory mammal of the dog family.

By the way:
turtle -- ウミガメ
tortoise -- カメ
mouse -- ハツカネズミ
rat -- ネズミ
shrew -- トガリネズミ
vole -- ハタネズミの類・野ネズミ
whale -- クジラ
rorqual -- ナガス［イワシ］クジラ
orc (I assume you meant "orca") -- シャチ, and also the loan words キラー・ホェール and オルカ

Looks like they're pretty differentiated to me. In fact, not only that, but they look better organized as well. All of the rodents end in ネズミ, and two of the three whales end in クジラ.