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Kun'yomi (訓読み,Japanese pronunciation:[kɯɰ̃jomi],lit. 'explanatory reading'[1][a]) is the way of readingkanji characters using thenative Japanese word that matches the meaning of theChinese character when it was introduced.[2][3][4] This pronunciation is contrasted withon'yomi, which is the reading based on the original Chinese pronunciation of the character.
Generally,kun'yomi readings are used for simple, singular words, including mostverbs, whileon'yomi readings are used for compound, technical words.
Kun'yomi are characterized by the strict (C)V syllable structure of Japanese words (yamato kotoba). Most noun or adjectivekun'yomi are two to three syllables long, while verbkun'yomi are usually between one and three syllables in length, not counting trailinghiragana calledokurigana.Okurigana are not considered to be part of the internal reading of the character, although they are part of the reading of the word. A beginner in the language will rarely come across characters with long readings, but readings of three or even four syllables are not uncommon. This contrasts withon'yomi, which are only one or two syllables, as they were adapted from Chinese characters, which are almost all monosyllabic.
As withon'yomi, there can be multiplekun'yomi for the same kanji, and some kanji have nokun'yomi at all. For instance, the character foreast,東, hastō as itson'yomi, fromMiddle Chinesetung. However,Japanese already had two words for "east":higashi andazuma. Thus the kanji東 had the latter readings added askun'yomi. In contrast, the kanji寸, denoting a Chinese unit of measurement (about 30 mm or 1.2 inch), has no nativeJapanese equivalent; it only has anon'yomi,sun, with no nativekun'yomi.
In a number of cases, multiple kanji were assigned to cover a singleJapanese word. Typically when this occurs, the different kanji refer to specific shades of meaning. For instance, the wordなおす,naosu, when written治す, means "to heal an illness or sickness". When written直す it means "to fix or correct something". Sometimes the distinction is very clear, although not always. Differences of opinion among reference works are not uncommon; one dictionary may say the kanji are equivalent, while another dictionary may draw distinctions of use. As a result, native speakers of the language may have trouble knowing which kanji to use and resort to personal preference or by writing the word inhiragana. This latter strategy is frequently employed with more complex cases such as もとmoto, which has at least five different kanji:元, 基, 本, 下, and素, the first three of which have only very subtle differences. Another notable example issakazuki "sake cup", which may be spelt as at least five different kanji:杯, 盃, 巵/卮, and坏; of these, the first two are common—formally杯 is a small cup and盃 a large cup.
Local dialectical readings of kanji are also classified underkun'yomi, most notably readings for words inRyukyuan languages. Further, in rare cases gairaigo (borrowed words) have asingle character associated with them, in which case this reading is formally classified as akun'yomi, because the character is being used for meaning, not sound.
Mostkokuji, Japanese-created Chinese characters, only havekun'yomi, although some have back-formed a pseudo-on'yomi by analogy with similar characters, such as働dō, from動dō, and there are even some, such as腺sen "gland", that have only anon'yomi.
承るuketamawaru,志kokorozashi, and詔mikotonori have five syllables represented by a single kanji, the longest readings in thejōyō character set. These unusually long readings are due to a single character representing a compound word:
Further, some Jōyō characters have long non-Jōyō readings (students learn the character, but not the reading), such asomonpakaru for慮る.
クンズ｛動・名｝むずかしい字句の意味をやさしいことばでときほぐす説明。また、その説明のことば。よみ方。