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23-457: Go-on are the earliest form of on'yomi ( 音読み ) , preceding the kan-on ( 漢音 ) readings. Both go-on and kan-on exhibit characteristics of Middle Chinese . Go-on readings were introduced into Japan during the 5th and 6th centuries , when China was divided into separate Northern and Southern dynasties . They may have been imported either directly from the Southern dynasty or from

46-504: A kanji based on the historical Chinese pronunciation of the character. A single kanji might have multiple on'yomi pronunciations, reflecting the Chinese pronunciations of different periods or regions. On'yomi pronunciations are generally classified into go-on , kan-on , tō-on and kan'yō-on , roughly based on when they were borrowed from China. Generally, on'yomi pronunciations are used for technical, compound words, while

69-461: A non- kan-on reading in a word where the kan-on reading is well known is a common cause of reading mistakes or difficulty, such as in ge-doku ( 解毒 , detoxification, anti-poison) ( go-on ), where 解 is usually instead read as kai . The go-on readings are especially common in Buddhist terminology such as gokuraku ( 極楽 , paradise) , as well as in some of the earliest loans, such as

92-474: A number of cases, multiple kanji were assigned to cover a single Japanese word. Typically when this occurs, the different kanji refer to specific shades of meaning. For instance, the word なおす , naosu , when written 治す , means "to heal an illness or sickness". When written 直す it means "to fix or correct something". Sometimes the distinction is very clear, although not always. Differences of opinion among reference works are not uncommon; one dictionary may say

115-588: A story that claims a Baekjean nun named Hōmei ( 法明 ) had taught Buddhism in Tsushima by reading the Vimalakīrti Sutra entirely in go-on . Go-on readings are generally less orderly than kan-on readings, but can be characterized as follows. On%27yomi On'yomi ( 音読み , [oɰ̃jomi] , lit. "sound(-based) reading") , or the Sino-Japanese reading, is the reading of

138-500: Is sakazuki "sake cup", which may be spelt as at least five different kanji: 杯, 盃, 巵/卮 , and 坏 ; of these, the first two are common—formally 杯 is a small cup and 盃 a large cup. Local dialectical readings of kanji are also classified under kun'yomi , most notably readings for words in Ryukyuan languages . Further, in rare cases gairaigo (borrowed words) have a single character associated with them, in which case this reading

161-486: Is formally classified as a kun'yomi , because the character is being used for meaning, not sound. Most kokuji , Japanese-created Chinese characters, only have kun'yomi , although some have back-formed a pseudo- on'yomi by analogy with similar characters, such as 働 dō , from 動 dō , and there are even some, such as 腺 sen "gland", that have only an on'yomi . 承る uketamawaru , 志 kokorozashi , and 詔 mikotonori have five syllables represented by

184-535: Is reflected in the carryover to Japanese as well. Additionally, many Chinese syllables, especially those with an entering tone , did not fit the largely consonant-vowel (CV) phonotactics of classical Japanese. Thus most on'yomi are composed of two morae (beats), the second of which is either a lengthening of the vowel in the first mora (to ei , ō , or ū ), the vowel i , or one of the syllables ku , ki , tsu , chi , fu (historically, later merged into ō and ū ), or moraic n , chosen for their approximation to

207-533: Is the way of reading kanji characters using the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. This pronunciation is contrasted with on'yomi , which is the reading based on the original Chinese pronunciation of the character. Generally, kun'yomi readings are used for simple, singular words, including most verbs , while on'yomi readings are used for compound, technical words. Kun'yomi are characterized by

230-514: Is thought that Japanese students studying in China adopted this practice, and, taking the position that the Chang'an-based manner of elocution were the correct ones, they also began to refer to the previously imported, unfashionable kanji readings as " go-on ". Go-on readings were also occasionally referred to as Tsushima -on ( 対馬音 ) and Kudara-on ( 百済音 , literally " Baekje sound") because of

253-645: The English borrowings from Latin, Greek, and Norman French , since Chinese-borrowed terms are often more specialized, or considered to sound more erudite or formal, than their native counterparts (occupying a higher linguistic register ). The major exception to this rule is family names , in which the native kun'yomi are usually used (though on'yomi are found in many personal names, especially men's names). Kanji invented in Japan ( kokuji ) would not normally be expected to have on'yomi , but there are exceptions, such as

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276-530: The Korean Peninsula . There was an influx of thinkers from China and Korea to Japan at that time, including practitioners of both Buddhism and Confucianism . However, there is no historical documentation to demonstrate that go-on readings are actually based on Southern Chinese. Shibatani has noted that go-on readings make up the first of three waves of Chinese loans to the Japanese language,

299-712: The Sino-Japanese numbers. The tō-on readings occur in some later words, such as isu ( 椅子 , chair) , futon ( 布団 , mattress) , and andon ( 行灯 , a kind of paper lantern) . The go-on , kan-on , and tō-on readings are generally cognate (with rare exceptions of homographs; see below), having a common origin in Old Chinese , and hence form linguistic doublets or triplets, but they can differ significantly from each other and from modern Chinese pronunciation. Kun%27yomi Kun'yomi ( 訓読み , [kɯɰ̃jomi] , lit. "meaning reading")

322-592: The character 働 "to work", which has the kun'yomi " hatara(ku) " and the on'yomi " dō ", and 腺 "gland", which has only the on'yomi " sen "—in both cases these come from the on'yomi of the phonetic component, respectively 動 " dō " and 泉 " sen ". In Chinese, most characters are associated with a single Chinese sound, though there are distinct literary and colloquial readings . However, some homographs ( 多音字 ) such as 行 (Mandarin: háng or xíng , Japanese: an, gō, gyō ) have more than one reading in Chinese representing different meanings, which

345-446: The character for east , 東 , has tō as its on'yomi , from Middle Chinese tung . However, Japanese already had two words for "east": higashi and azuma . Thus the kanji 東 had the latter readings added as kun'yomi . In contrast, the kanji 寸 , denoting a Chinese unit of measurement (about 30 mm or 1.2 inch), has no native Japanese equivalent; it only has an on'yomi , sun , with no native kun'yomi . In

368-426: The final consonants of Middle Chinese. It may be that palatalized consonants before vowels other than i developed in Japanese as a result of Chinese borrowings, as they are virtually unknown in words of native Japanese origin, but are common in Chinese. Generally, on'yomi are classified into four types according to their region and time of origin: The most common form of readings is the kan-on one, and use of

391-478: The kanji are equivalent, while another dictionary may draw distinctions of use. As a result, native speakers of the language may have trouble knowing which kanji to use and resort to personal preference or by writing the word in hiragana . This latter strategy is frequently employed with more complex cases such as もと moto , which has at least five different kanji: 元, 基, 本, 下 , and 素 , the first three of which have only very subtle differences. Another notable example

414-411: The language will rarely come across characters with long readings, but readings of three or even four syllables are not uncommon. This contrasts with on'yomi , which are only one or two syllables, as they were adapted from Chinese characters, which are almost all monosyllabic. As with on'yomi , there can be multiple kun'yomi for the same kanji, and some kanji have no kun'yomi at all. For instance,

437-524: The name Shōtoku (which is go-on ) is pronounced as such in some derived placenames, but as Seitoku (which is kan-on ) in others. However, some go-on sounds are now lost. Even though monolingual Japanese dictionaries list a complete inventory of go-on for all characters, some were actually reconstructed using the fanqie method or were inferred to be the same as their modern homophones . Go-on readings were formerly referred to as Wa -on ( 和音 , lit. "Japanese sound") . The term ' go-on'

460-407: The native kun'yomi pronunciation is used for singular, simpler words. On'yomi primarily occur in multi-kanji compound words ( 熟語 , jukugo ) , many of which are the result of the adoption, along with the kanji themselves, of Chinese words for concepts that either did not exist in Japanese or could not be articulated as elegantly using native words. This borrowing process is often compared to

483-685: The others being kan-on and tou-sou-on (meaning Tang Song sound), with go-on being mainly associated with Buddhism . Go-on readings are particularly common for Buddhist and legal terminology, especially those of the Nara and Heian periods . These readings were also used for the Chinese characters of the ancient Japanese syllabary used in the Kojiki . When kan-on readings were introduced to Japan, their go-on equivalents did not disappear entirely. Even today, go-on and kan-on readings still both exist. Many characters have both readings. For instance,

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506-421: The strict (C)V syllable structure of Japanese words ( yamato kotoba ). Most noun or adjective kun'yomi are two to three syllables long, while verb kun'yomi are usually between one and three syllables in length, not counting trailing hiragana called okurigana . Okurigana are not considered to be part of the internal reading of the character, although they are part of the reading of the word. A beginner in

529-518: Was first introduced in the mid-Heian, likely by people who wished to promote kan-on readings. During the Tang dynasty , people in Chang'an referred to their own way of reading characters as qínyīn ( 秦音 , shin'on , lit. " Qin sound") and all other readings, particularly those originating south of the Yangtze , as wúyīn ( 呉音 , go'on , lit. " Wu sound") or one of many other similar names. It

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