7053
I looked up both 沙 and 砂 in my 学研{がっけん} 漢和辞典{かんわじてん} today. It appears that
they share the same list of readings (サ、シャ、すな、いさご). I also see that some words
can be written with either kanji. Here are the senses my dictionary lists for
沙:

  1. すなはら。「[沙漠]{さばく}」

  2. すな。いさご。

  3. 水で洗い分けて取り除く。「[沙汰]{さた}」

The dictionary goes on to say that meanings 1 and 2 are normally written with
砂. That makes sense to me--I've never seen すな or さばく written 沙 or 沙漠. (Of
course, I'm only a student.)

So then, where the meanings overlap, is 砂 always used? I looked for the answer
online, and I found a claim that 沙 to mean sand or desert is mostly used in
China, while 砂 is mostly used in Japan. Is this true? Is there any distinction
in meaning between e.g. 沙漠 and 砂漠? Are there times when I _should_ write these
words with 沙?

I started wondering when I saw how highly ranked 沙 was in the [文化庁 漢字出現頻度表
(Agency for Cultural Affairs kanji frequency
list)](http://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/bunkasingi/kanji_24/pdf/sanko_3.pdf),
but I fear I've misled myself.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-05T03:36:20.070
7047
2012-10-06T10:23:52.903
question
kanji orthography homophonic-kanji
Distinguishing 沙 from 砂
沙 and 砂 are almost the same, though 砂 is used to describe bigger 沙. 砂石's 砂 is
quite different from 沙漠's 沙. However, today most of people consider 砂 as 沙.
You can use them in the same way.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-06T10:23:52.903
7053
2012-10-06T10:23:52.903
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7047
answer