On'yomi

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Japanese writing
Components
Kanji Stroke order Radicals Kyōiku kanji Jōyō kanji Jinmeiyō kanji Hyōgai kanji List of kanji by stroke count
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Uses
Syllabograms Furigana Okurigana Braille
Transliteration
Rōmaji Hepburn (colloquial) ISO ) ISO transliteration ) JSL (transliteration) Wāpuro (keyboard)
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v t e

On'yomi (音読み, [oɰ̃jomi], lit. "sound(-based) reading"), the Sino-Japanese reading, is the reading of a kanji based on the Chinese pronunciation of the character. A single kanji might have multiple 'on'yomi' pronunciations reflecting the Chinese pronunciations of different periods or regions.^[1][2]

It was often previously referred to as translation reading, as it was recreated readings of the Chinese pronunciation but was not the Chinese pronunciation or reading itself, similar to the English pronunciation of Latin loanwords. Old Japanese scripts often stated that on'yomi readings were also created by the Japanese during their arrival and re-borrowed by the Chinese as their own.

Some kanji were introduced from different parts of China at different times, and so have multiple on'yomi, and often multiple meanings.

Usage

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 the

Kanji invented in Japan (kokuji) would not normally be expected to have on'yomi, but there are exceptions, such as 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".

Characteristics

In Chinese, most characters are associated with a single Chinese sound, though there are distinct

Generally, on'yomi are classified into four types according to their region and time of origin:[1]

• Shanghainese language
  .
• Kan-on (漢音, "Han sound") readings come from the pronunciation utilized during the Tang dynasty of China in the 7th to 9th centuries, primarily from the standard speech of the capital, Chang'an (modern Xi'an). Here, Kan refers to Han Chinese people or China proper.
• Heian era to the Edo period
  . This is also known as Tōsō-on (唐宋音, Tang and Song sound).
• Kan'yō-on (慣用音, "customary sound") readings, which are mistaken or changed readings of the kanji that have become accepted into the Japanese language. In some cases, they are the actual readings that accompanied the character's introduction to Japan but do not match how the character "should" (is prescribed to) be read according to the rules of character construction and pronunciation.