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On'yomi (音読み, , lit. "sound(-based) reading"), or the Sino-Japanese reading, is the reading of 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.
Kanji (漢字, pronounced ⓘ) are the logographic Chinese characters adapted from the Chinese script used in the writing of Japanese. [1] They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of hiragana and katakana.
The jōyō kanji (常用漢字, Japanese pronunciation: [dʑoːjoːkaꜜɲdʑi], lit. "regular-use kanji") system of representing written Japanese currently consists of 2,136 characters. List of characters
Furigana commonly appear alongside kanji names and their romanizations on signs for railway stations, even if the pronunciation of the kanji is commonly known. Furigana also appear often on maps to show the pronunciation of unusual place names. Before the war, youths might arguably have been almost illiterate if not for furigana.
Many generalizations about Japanese pronunciation have exceptions if recent loanwords are taken into account. For example, the consonant [p] generally does not occur at the start of native (Yamato) or Chinese-derived (Sino-Japanese) words, but it occurs freely in this position in mimetic and foreign words. [2]
Another notable example 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.
Ateji form of "trash bin" (ゴミ入れ, gomi-ire) as "護美入れ", using the ateji form of "ゴミ" ("gomi", "trash"), which literally translates as "protect beauty". In modern Japanese, ateji (当て字, 宛字 or あてじ, pronounced; "assigned characters") principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of ...
Almost all kanji originated in China, and may have more than one meaning and pronunciation. Kanji compounds generally derive their meaning from the combined kanji. For example, Tokyo (東京) is written with two kanji: "east" (東) + "capital" (京). The kanji, however, are pronounced differently from their Chinese relatives.