音読みと訓読み
This post is about 音読み、訓読み and 熟字訓.I have been asked by a number of people why some kanji readings are written in Katakana and others in Hiragana. The reason is most kanji dictionaries use katakana for 音読み and Hiragana for 訓読み and I follow the same rule. 音読み and 訓読み are explained as:
音読み – reading of a kanji by its Chinese-derived pronunciation(s).
訓読み – reading of a kanji character by the native Japanese equivalent.
It is said that Chinese characters were first brought to Japan during the 4th century. Some meanings of kanji were imported into the Japanese language together with their sounds and they became 音読み but people applied kanji characters for the Japanese words which had already existed and these readings are called 訓読み.
Importing of Kanji characters was not a one-time affair. So some kanji characters have two or more different 音読み as Chinese pronunciation has also changed over the years.
Some characters form a compound word called 熟字訓, which is explained as “an idiosyncratic reading of a kanji compound bearing no relation to the individual readings of the constituent kanji.” Examples of this is 明日（あす）、大人（おとな）, etc. These words are mentioned in my posts as “customary reading” of “difficult reading.”
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