音読み
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] Japanese
| Kanji in this term | |||||||
| 音 | 読 | ||||||
[edit] Etymology
音 (おん, on), “‘sound’”) + 読 (よみ, yomi), “‘reading/pronunciation’”)
[edit] Noun
音読み (hiragana おんよみ, romaji on'yomi)
- The reading of a Japanese word written in kanji that is roughly based on the pronunciation of the kanji characters in the main Chinese dialects at the time the word was introduced into Japanese.
- As words written in kanji were brought to Japan at different times rather than all at once, each 音読み is categorized as 呉音 (ごおん, goon), 漢音 (かんおん, kan'on), or 唐音 (とうおん, tōon), depending on which dialect was used by those in power in China when that particular word became common in Japanese. Thus, the same kanji may be used to mean different things depending on the reading, reflecting the differences between the original dialects, such as 利益 which means "profit" when read with the 漢音 pronunciation りえき (rieki), but means "Buddhist blessing or salvation" when read with the 呉音 pronunciation りやく (riyaku).
- 音読み loosely corresponds to 漢語 (かんご, kango), with the former signifying the reading and the latter signifying the word itself.
