Wanna be an evangelist of Japanese culture: on-yomi, kun-yomi(Kanji)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

on-yomi, kun-yomi(Kanji)

Kanji usually has two readings of. It's on-yomi and kun-yomi.

On-yomi is a reading of Kanji based on pronunciation of Chinese.
In the case of the combinatorial words of some kanjis, it is often read by on-yomi.

Kun-yomi is a reading of Kanji peculiar to Japan.
Therefore kun-yomi may be read with a hiragana letter.
These hiragana are called "okuri-gana".

For example, in the case of "美", it is as follows.

on-yomi : 美 / bi : =beauty
kun-yomi : 美しい / utsuku(shii) : =beautiful

In this case, "しい" is "okuri-gana" and it is necessary for the composition of the word.
In the case of on-yomi, "美" is often used in combination with other kanjis, like "美女 / beautiful woman" and "美観 / beautiful sight".

*I deal some design goods using kanji of "美".
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