This article reads as follows:
In practical terms, onyomi is often used for standalone kanji referring to the literal meaning of the single character, while kunyomi is more often used in compound words and can be more nuanced.
I fell like this is the opposite of what I have read elsewhere.
Source: https://speechling.com/blog/the-best-way-to-learn-japanese-onyomi-and-kunyomi/amp/
2 comments
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If by ‘standalone kanji’ we mean ‘a single kanji word’ then the statement would not be correct. A substantial majority of single kanji words are kunyomi.
I don’t speak any Chinese, much less the dialects of ancient Chinese from when the kanji were borrowed into Japan, but my understanding is that most Chinese words at the time were spelled with two characters, so single-character words with an onyomi are unusual. There are *some*, which may come from another dialect of Chinese or may come from repurposing of the characters within Japan.
If, on the other hand, by ‘standalone kanji’ we mean ‘words consisting exclusively of kanji (no kana)’ then yes, that’s the actual case. The days of the week are an example of that used a little later. (Although kana included in a word has a tendency to fall off words over time to simplify their spelling, so there is a steadily increasing number of pure kanji words that *used* to have kana in them.)
The ‘single kanji word’ is the natural meaning of the statement to me, but I suppose this is probably a case of the author using an awkward phrasing.