Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
From here:

Heh, even when I Google Image 未年 (Year of the Caprid), I get images of both sheep and goats! Also, you'll notice that the Kanji for Caprid in the compound for Year of the Caprid is 未, and not 羊 (hitsuji) or 山羊 (yagi). 未 on its own means "not yet," as in words like:
未来 (mirai) = "future", lit. "(events which have) not yet come (to pass)"
未成年 (miseinen) = "minor" (as in a person under age). lit. "not yet become years (i.e. come of age)"
But in the context of the Lunar Zodiac, 未 refers to the '8/12 heavenly branch,' which is the caprid.

It doesn't surprise me that while 羊 semantically means "sheep," it may also be synonymous with goats or just any kind of caprid. As I mentioned before, while 猿 (saru) semantically means "monkey," it can also be used to generically refer to any kind of non-human primate, thus apes can also be included (which is why 孫悟空 (Son Gokuu) is often portrayed as a tailless ape as well as a tailed monkey. Then there's Dragonball which just gave us tailed apes, but they're aliens, so that's okay. )
Very informative. I'm a native Chinese (mandarin) speaker, so I understand you perfectly and it's always interesting to see the difference between the Japanese Kanji and Chinese Hanzi when there is.

Btw, Sun Wukong (Son Goku in Japanese) has always been portrayed with tail in Chinese literature and folk lore. In fact it's one of his weaknesses. He can change to 72 different forms (a bit like early concept TFA Blitzwing ), but always can't hide his tail that well.
Check out this google doodle paying tribute to the fantastic animated film Havoc in Heaven. The letter "G" is when Wukong changes to a temple but can't hide his tail