Different Kanji Pronunciation
 

I wish there was a sticky thread focusing on the kanji with different pronunciations for the same character depending on the usage. It often confuses me as to how to read certain kanji combinations because of that... there are so many different rules for them! >_<

For example: 収穫祭
Is it read as Shuukaku sai or Shuukaku matsuri? What is the difference between the two?

All of them? I can`t think of any that don`t have multiple readings. Having a sticky dedicated to it would be pointless as we`d have to list pretty much every kanji.


It`s shuukakusai. You could say the second and people would know what you meant, as there isn`t exactly a difference in meaning - it would just not be following the rules of reading. Every kanji in that has more than one reading - 収 can be read as おさ (in 収まる) and 穫 as と (in 穫る). In a multi-character word, it`s normal to read them according to their 音読み (さい for 祭), instead of 訓読み (まつり for 祭).

Pretty much EVERY kanji has different pronunciations, so a thread about all of them would not be quite feasible. Most of it is just memorization and context. Some combos don't use the readings from either kanji and they just make up their own, example : Kyou きょう　今日 That must be memorized.

Other times when the readings are used you have to figure out by context which reading to use.

Whoa, EVERY kanji?! I didn't know that!
Ahh... the road to kanji reading is more treacherous than I thought... T-T
Thanks for the answer!

Naya, as a rule of thumb, any words where it is just Kanji, such as 収穫祭 is usually Onyomi only,　躊躇（ちゅうちょ） is another example.

Any words where it is kanji then some hiragana that follows, then it's Kun-yomi, such as 躊躇う （ためらう）.

But there are always exceptions.
問合係 looks innocent but it is all Kunyomi, といあわせがかり
愛す looks like a japanese word but the character uses onyomi, あいす
湯桶 looks like a chinese word but the first character uses kunyomi and the last character uses onyomi, ゆとう
河豚 looks like another chinese word (and it is) but a completely different word in the Japanese vocabulary is used to pronounce this word and not onyomi. ふぐ.
紅葉 this word can be pronounced in both onyomi こうよう and kunyomi もみじ.

So as you can see, it's just a mess and memorisation is the only way.

kirakira's right.

Just to clarify: The default rule for reading will rarely steer you wrong in the grand scheme of things:

If more than one kanji together, read it using Sino-Japanese pronunciation. If alone, read it with Japanese pronunciation. You'll have to learn these two classes of pronunciations through rote memorization.