I see both ニチ (nichi) and ジツ (jitsu) listed as on-yomi for 日. And the on-yomi ホン (hon) listed for 本. The on-yomi ホン (hon) for 本 makes sense since the word 日本 is most commonly read “nihon.” But I am confused where the “ni” reading comes from.
Since 日本 is jukugo it would make most sense to me for ニ (ni) to be listed as an on-yomi. But に (ni) isn’t even listed as a kun-yomi. I do see に (ni) listed as a nanori at least. So does this mean the kanji in 日本 are read with the nanori and on-yomi readings respectively? Or is the ニチ (nichi) on-yomi reading for 日 shortened to ニ (ni) in this special scenario?
I know there are going to be many special cases with kanji but I want to understand how to categorize these special cases in my head. Should I consider the チ (chi) in ニチ (nichi) as dropped in 日本? Or consider the reading of 日本 to be part nanori part on-yomi? Or do kanji often have readings not listed in the on-yomi or kun-yomi (other than names)?
A strange “special case” since 日 is read like に (ni) and has the furigana of に (ni) for so many words in Japanese (日本, 日本人, 日本語, 日本酒, etc). Thanks!
by chord-memory