this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
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Japanese Language

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ようこそJapaneseLanguageへ! 日本語に興味を持てば、どうぞ登録して勉強しましょう!日本語に関係するどのテーマ、質問でも大歓迎します。 This is a community dedicated to the Japanese language. Feel free to come in and ask questions or post your thoughts and opinions about this beautiful language.

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Remember that you can add furigana to your posts by writing ~{KANJI|FURIGANA}~ like:

~{漢字|かんじ}~ which comes out as:

{漢字|かんじ}

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吉(き↑ち↓)= Lucky (especially from a fortune)
不吉(ふ↑きつ)= Unlucky

Why is it not ふきち!? Makes me want to quote Atsugiri Jason: WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE WHY!!!

/rant

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

It's Onyomi (The Chinese-based phonetic way) vs. Kunyomi (the Japanese own phonetic way) of pronunciation.

Like 心 kokoro vs. 心臓 shinzou. The latter in simplified Chinese that this is based off of is 心脏 (Xinzang), which sounds similar.

Commonly, Onyomi is used when multiple kanji are used to describe a single "word" or concept, and Kunyomi is often used when on its own or is a verb with its own trailing character conjugation (okurigana).

Many exceptions apply but I hope this rule of thumb helps you.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thanks... I looked up 吉, and unfortunately it appears that there are just two onyomis for this. WHY!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

It's true that other combos for this have kichi as onyomi... this probably is one of those many exceptions.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't know, but thanks for the great video :D

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

Haha, you're welcome!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because Japanese is a spoken Japanese pizza topped with Chinese writing on half of it but a few bits snuck on the other side, too. Or some better metaphor.

Single kanji -> stand in for whatever the Japanese word is, read it like the Japanese word, probably. Two kanji -> oh shit, maybe, if you're lucky, it's the Chinese reading of both. But sometimes it's not, sometimes it just gets slapped on the Japanese word. And if you're really unlucky with a word, they mix. Which is first, I don't know, you don't know, the Japanese might know, or they might just add the pronunciation right on there. Four kanji -> I dunno, ask a linguist.

Also, thank you for introducing me to that video. Why indeed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Thanks!
Curses, きち and きつ are apparently both onyomi.