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Kan-on
One of the sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kan-on or kan'on (漢音, Japanese pronunciation: [kaꜜɰ̃.oɴ] or [kaɰ̃.oɴ], "Han sound") are Japanese kanji readings borrowed from Chinese during the Tang dynasty, from the 7th to the 9th centuries; a period which corresponds to the Japanese Nara period. They were introduced by, among others, envoys from Japanese missions to Tang China. Kan-on should not be confused with tō-on (唐音, Tang sound), which were later phonetic loans.
Kan-on are on'yomi (音読み) based on the central Chang'an pronunciation of Middle Chinese.[1] The syllable Kan is a reading of Middle Chinese: 漢 (xanH) as per Japanese phonology, referring to the Han dynasty, which had Chang'an as its capital city.[1] Furthermore, Kan (漢) has also become a description for all things Chinese, e.g., kanji ('Chinese characters').
Kan'on partly displaced the earlier go-on, which were "just imitations of Korean imitations, but Kan-on were imitations of the real thing."[1]
A minority of characters never had their kan-on transmitted to Japan; their kan-on are sometimes reconstructed in Japanese dictionaries although not specifically marked as such. A few dictionaries go as far as to discard attested kan-on in favour of more systematic pronunciations.[1]
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Characteristics as compared to go-on
In consonants
In vowels
_vowels.svg)
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See also
- On'yomi: Sino-Japanese readings
- Checked tone
References
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