ハート形の読み方。。。

Japanese Language Questions
1

I’m wondering why the 形 in ハート形 is pronounced as がた and not がたち? I’m comfortable with rendaku by now, so that makes sense to me. I’m more confused by the dropping of ち. Is this common for uses of the 形 suffix?

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2

形 can be both かたち and かた :3

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3

So then the shortened かた reading is the only one used for the suffix?

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4

Wiktionary suggests it’s more the other way round, that かたち is かた plus some ち element added on; since both are attested as far back as 720AD and our earliest Japanese written sources we’ll probably never know.

For learning purposes it’s probably best to think of them as two separate words (and thus separate kun readings for 形).

5

It seems like 形 on its own can be either かたち or かた (though I’m not clear on the semantic differences between the two—they are two separate words, even if they’re often spelled the same way in kanji—though they are listed as synonyms), but when 形 is used as a suffix it looks like it’s always gonna be がた

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