Chinese Readings of Characters in Japanese

The article presents a brief overview of Chinese, or on’yomi, readings of hieroglyphs in Japanese. The process of borrowing and adapting Chinese readings of characters in Japan differed from Korea and Vietnam, where the character generally has one Chinese reading. A feature of Japanese hieroglyphics is the preservation of Chinese readings of hieroglyphs that came to the country at different times, from different places and sources. One hieroglyph can have three, and in some cases up to five different readings. Traditionally, there are three main groups of readings: goon, kan’on and to:on. In addition to them, there is kanyo:on, a reading based on a distorted or erroneous reading, which over time was fixed in the language. The fifth group of koon readings is recorded in written sourses, but is practically not used at present.