Japanese

Alternative forms

• 音読 (leaving the okurigana み implied)

Noun

音読み ‎(hiragana おんよみ, romaji on'yomi)

1. (linguistics) The reading of a Japanese word written in kanji that is roughly based on the pronunciation of the kanji characters in the originating Chinese dialect 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 can be categorized as 呉音 ‎(goon), 漢音 ‎(kan'on), or 唐音 ‎(tōon), among other subcategories, depending on the originating dialect. Thus, the same kanji may be used to mean different things depending on the reading, reflecting the differences between the source Chinese 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 ‎(kango), with the former signifying the reading and the latter signifying the word itself.

Synonyms

• 音読 (おんどく) ‎(ondoku)

Antonyms

• 訓読 (くんよ)み ‎(kun'yomi): a kanji reading based on the original Japanese word of that meaning

See also

• 漢文 (かんぶん) ‎(kanbun): Chinese writing, Chinese literature, Chinese classics.
• 漢語 (かんご) ‎(kango): A Chinese-derived word borrowed into Japanese generally before the 1300s (as opposed to more recent borrowings, usually classified as gairaigo)
• 外来語 (がいらいご) ‎(gairaigo): A foreign word borrowed into Japanese generally in the 1300s or later.

Verb

音読みする ‎(hiragana おんよみする, romaji on'yomi suru)

1. to use the on'yomi of a word, to read a word using the pronunciation based on the original Chinese pronunciation

Conjugation

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
3. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
4. ↑ 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13143-0