Hello,
I hope you can help me.
I’m just starting to learn vocabulary and I want to combine it with learning kanji. After reading a lot in this sub I have decided to not learn the individual kanji readings, but the reading in the vocabulary.
But I came across a problem. The meaning of the word “you” is writting あなた in hiragana. From my point of understanding the reading of this word, but written with kanjis, shouldn’t change. Therefore the reading of this word, written with the kanji 貴方 (the dictionary says it is one of the possible ways to write it) should still be あなた
I am not planning on learning the individiual kanji meaning (since it can change depending on the context) or the way to pronounce the kanji in general. But to know which part of the word I am reading right now, I have to look up how to read the individual kanji in the given word. I’m therefor using a dictonary app (“Japanse” on iOS by renzo Inc.).
The only (in my opinion) fitting reading of the kanji 方 in this context is なた (it says in Nanori?). But for the kanji 貴 im not finding a proper reading. I know (or think) it should just be あ. But the only readings the dictonary is giving me are the following:
Kun-yomi: たっとぶ、とうとぶ
On-yomi: キ
Nanori: きよ、ぎ、たか、たかし、よし
So where is my mistake?
I hope anyone can help me. Thank you!
5 comments
It’s jukujikun, i.e. the kanji can’t be read separately. You’ll probably already know words such as 今日 (きょう) “today” or 明日 (あした) “tomorrow” which share the same feature. Essentially they’re read as one unit.
On a side note, I’m a beginner too, but afaik it’s quite uncommon to write あなた in kanji.
It’s an indivisible reading for multiple characters at this point, similar to “今日” due to historical sound shifts. It’s actually a leftover, originally “そなた” and “こなた” also existed in analogy with “それ” and これ” to “あれ”. Their meanings were similar to what “あちら”, “そちら” and “こちら” are today.
“あなた” is the only one that survived in common modern usage and with a very different meaning. The other two are archaic. One can sometimes see “そなた” used to mean “you” in old-fashioned styles in literature.
The characters chosen to spell the word “あなた” came later, when the sense of a polite pronoun to refer to a person was already established. It has lost much of its politeness today and is fairly neutral. “貴女” and “貴男” also exist as alternative ways to write it if the writer wishes to put some kind of emphasis on the gender of the person being referred to.
A lot of unconventional readings for words are Japanese original words, that means kanji came to the language after these words, and had to be hurriedly fitted onto them.
I appreciate all of your answers. They are very helpful and make it easier for me to understand Japanese and my process of learning. Thank you.
There are many such kanjis.
For example, “竜髭菜” is read as “アスパラガス”.(asparagus) It is said that this is because the leaves resemble a dragon(竜)’s beard(髭).And,菜 means plant.