Readings that cannot be explained by either kun- or on-yomi

Index » The Japanese language

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Reply #1 - 2009 October 16, 8:02 am
stupiddog Member
From: Germany NRW Bonn Registered: 2009-02-26 Posts: 33

Hello,

I am just getting started with Japanese readings, and I stumbled across some words like this: 何時 (question word: when?). It is read as いつ, but that cannot be explained by the readings of neither 何 nor 時 (that would be なんじ). I don't understand why the reading of the whole term is completely different from the reading of its compounds... anybody can enlighten me?

Another example would be 今日 -> きょう, but that does not seem to fit the on- and kun-readings of its kanji either.

Greetings,
Andreas

Last edited by stupiddog (2009 October 16, 8:04 am)

Reply #2 - 2009 October 16, 8:06 am
crayonmaster Member
From: USA Registered: 2009-01-19 Posts: 99 Website

From my understanding... for words like that, they came up with the word first, and later attached the kanji to fit the meaning.

Reply #3 - 2009 October 16, 8:21 am
Katsuo M.O.D.
From: Tokyo Registered: 2007-02-06 Posts: 887 Website

Here is the official Joyo exception list (but there are lots of others too).

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Reply #4 - 2009 October 16, 8:32 am
stupiddog Member
From: Germany NRW Bonn Registered: 2009-02-26 Posts: 33

Katsuo wrote:

Here is the official Joyo exception list (but there are lots of others too).

Oh, I did not know that such exceptions existed. This is very helpful, thanks!

Last edited by stupiddog (2009 October 16, 9:36 am)

Reply #5 - 2009 October 16, 9:34 am
Aijin Member
From: California Registered: 2009-05-29 Posts: 648

熟字訓 have to simply be memorized. いつ and いつも are written in hiragana usually to prevent confusion. From context someone will figure out that you mean いつ and not なんじ if you use the kanji form, but there will be a momentary "...huh?" reaction since most people are accustomed to reading it in hiragana. It'll break the flow of reading, as the person will likely have to pause a second to contemplate the whole affair tongue

Reply #6 - 2009 October 16, 12:55 pm
yudantaiteki Member
Registered: 2009-10-03 Posts: 3619

crayonmaster wrote:

From my understanding... for words like that, they came up with the word first, and later attached the kanji to fit the meaning.

Strictly speaking that's true of all readings of all kanji; the words (or morphemes) come first, then the kanji.

What makes a 熟字訓 differ from just a normal 訓 reading is that as the name suggests, in a 熟字訓, the reading has been assigned to a sequence of two or more kanji rather than just one.

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