Chart of Frequency of Kana used in WK Kanji readings

I wanted to see it sorted by frequency, so I took all the values from your chart and put them into a spreadsheet. If anyone else is interested in it that way, here it is in comma-separated format:

Single/First Mora

Single/First Mora,Frequency
か,146
こ,103
し,83
せ,78
は,76
しょ,73
さ,70
そ,60
け,58
と,55
た,52
き,49
い,47
ふ,43
て,40
しゅ,38
ぼ,37
ほ,36
きょ,36
え,35
ひ,35
よ,34
す,32
お,30
あ,29
じょ,29
ゆ,28
じゅ,28
が,27
じ,27
ちょ,27
れ,26
だ,25
ご,24
も,24
りょ,24
く,23
ば,23
げ,22
ま,22
ち,21
ど,20
な,20
つ,19
り,19
ろ,19
う,17
きゅ,17
ぞ,16
へ,16
や,16
しゃ,16
み,15
め,15
わ,15
ら,14
ぎ,13
ぶ,13
に,12
ね,12
ざ,11
の,11
ちゅ,10
りゅ,10
ぜ,9
む,9
ひょ,9
び,8
ぐ,7
る,7
ぎょ,7
べ,6
びょ,5
で,4
みょ,4
ず,3
きゃ,3
じゃ,3
にゅ,3
ぬ,2
ぎゃ,2
ちゃ,2
づ,1
ぎゅ,1
にょ,1
ひゃ,1
みゃ,1
りゃ,1

Second Mora

Second Mora,Frequency
う,491
ん,387
い,245
く,171
つ,104
き,46
ま,15
た,14
か,10
ち,10
な,10
ら,10
ろ,10
さ,8
り,8
る,8
わ,8
し,7
め,7
ば,6
み,6
こ,5
と,5
ど,5
に,5
も,5
け,4
が,4
ぎ,4
じ,4
ね,4
れ,4
お,3
す,3
の,3
び,3
や,3
え,2
せ,2
そ,2
て,2
だ,2
べ,2
ず,1
ぞ,1
で,1
ぬ,1
は,1
ふ,1
ぶ,1
ぼ,1
む,1
ゆ,1
よ,1

…or you could have followed this link in the original post!

I’m in awe of everybody who can manipulate data like this - perhaps I’ll bother you instead of rfindley next time! :blush:

doh! :woman_facepalming:
I guess I will leave it here in case there are any other lazy people who can’t be bothered to follow links…

Actually, all I did was data entry from your pretty chart; I have no idea how rfindley got the original numbers!

1 Like

The java script is there too, and I actually dared to look - while I could never write it myself, knowing what it did, it seemed a much more ‘natural’ language and so more understandable than the wee bit of ‘programming’ I did in the late 80s.

I just remembered I got pinged by this thread at a time where I couldn’t check it out properly.

Just wanted to say your system looks really impressive! I’m happy to hear you got something out of reading the book. Knowing the frequency of a reading also makes it so you can focus your most memorable mnemonic devices to the readings where they have the biggest impact, that’s really cool :star_struck:

1 Like

I was initially stumped as to how to apply the memory techniques from the book until I realised that if I focussed on one and two mora yomi (which appear to be the vast number of kanji readings), I could have each single/first mora as a person (family, friends, famous people/characters) and any second mora, of which there are far fewer, as an object strongly associated with that person. So, for example, ら is: 1st Raj Koothrappali, 2nd his Yorkie Cinnamon, and く is: 1st Cookie Monster, 2nd a cookie - this then makes the kanji yomi らくto be Raj with a cookie, something more memorable to me than a generic ‘rack’.

I’m just about finished assigning mnemonics (some of the combos are proving tricky) but I hope to be resetting soon and getting back to daily effective study.

Thanks again for taking the time to write that wonderful post :blush:

3 Likes

I’m with you on not liking the violent mnemonics. I’m about to go search for a user-script that can actually change the mnemonic already given instead of just adding notes. :+1:

Please let us know here if you find one!

I do remember that rfindley wrote some stuff to allow folks to highlight their notes (blue for rads, pink for kanji, purple for vocab) to make them look as good as the WK mnemonic notes - let me see if I can dig that up…

Found it!

2 Likes

Thank you for finding that!

Sadly, I couldn’t find the mnemonic changing user script. But I’ll keep an eye out!

1 Like

@rfindley, sorry to bother you, but have you ever thought about making a list of kanji readings that WK accepts, ordered by frequency? I think something like this would be very useful for people that don’t use WK mnemonics/want to always associate the same reading with just 1 concept (example: こう => Kouichi).

1 Like

Ordered by which frequency?

  1. Frequency of a reading (in general) on Wanikani?
  2. Frequency of a reading (in general) in the wild?
  3. Frequency of a reading for that kanji in the wild?

I suppose if the purpose is to make your own mnemonic system with an emphasis on reusing associations, I’d go with (1) above.

If I were building my own system from scratch (i.e. the “accepted readings” aren’t determined yet), I think I’d go with (3) above if there’s one specific reading that’s much more common, and (2) if there are several common readings to choose from.

Either way, any of the above would need a data source. The data source for (1) is this thread. I don’t know of a good data source for (2) or (3). Are you (or anyone) aware of one?

1 Like

This is what I’m looking for, but only from kanji. Because of this:

The idea is to have a list available of all onyomi and kunyomi readings that WK has as available answers for kanji reviews, in a decrease order of frequency. This way, people can just decide what to associate to each reading while they progress with Wanikani. Wanikani does this, but when applied to their own mnemonics. If the user wanted to use their own word to associate with the reading, they’ll have nowhere to “organize” it.

How so? This is about moras, which is different than readings. I want せま for 狭, not せ + ま. Or am I not getting something? :thinking:

Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough with my first post.

Ahh, right you are.

So, here are the readings sorted by number of occurrences in kanji. (It’s not so easy to do the same for readings in vocab):

click to view

56:

しょう

54:

こう

39:

か, かん

35:

34:

31:

そう

29:

とう

28:

せい

26:

けん

24:

い, しん, せん, ちょう

23:

きょう, さい

22:

けい, ほう, ぼう

20:

じょう, てい, はん, ひ

19:

こ, りょう

18:

かい, しゅう, ふ

17:

きゅう, たい

16:

かく, ゆう, よう

15:

14:

13:

さ, せき, たん, は

12:

げん, そ

11:

えん, ぎ, しゃ, すい, と, どう, はい, れい

10:

えい, きょ, きん, こん, さん, しゅ, じゅう, じゅん, ぞう, りゅう, ろう

9:

お, がい, しょ, す, せつ, だん, ち, ちゅう, はく, ひょう, へい, よ

8:

う, こく, さつ, しょく, じん, そく, たく, ふく, ふん, ぶ, ゆ

7:

いん, おう, く, さく, しつ, じょ, た, つ, てん, ほ, もう, や, り, りん, れん

6:

がん, けつ, だ, だい, てき, とく, ねん, ばい, へん, ぼ, めい, やく, ろ

5:

あ, え, えき, かた, かつ, が, ぎょう, ごう, ざい, しゃく, しゅく, ぜん, そん, ぞく, ちん, てつ, ど, な, にん, のう, ばく, ばん, びょう, ぼく, み, もん

4:

あい, おん, がく, け, ざん, しき, しゅん, じゅ, なん, に, の, ば, ひん, び, びん, ふう, ま, まい, まつ, まん, みょう, む, めん, も, よく, らい, らく, らん, りょ, るい, れつ, わ

3:

あつ, あん, えつ, おく, かわ, きゃく, きょく, くつ, くん, ぐん, げ, げい, げき, こま, すう, ちく, とつ, にゅう, ね, はち, ばつ, ひつ, ぶん, べん, ほん, ぼん, め, もく, りつ, る

2:

あく, あさ, あま, いく, いつ, うら, かさ, かな, かみ, きつ, ぎゃく, ぎょ, ぎん, くさ, くも, ぐ, ぐう, こた, ごく, ごん, さと, しか, しち, しば, じつ, じゃく, じゅく, じゅつ, じょく, すみ, すん, ずい, せ, ぜい, そつ, だく, ちつ, ちょ, つい, つう, でん, とん, どく, どん, ない, なつ, はし, はじ, はな, はる, ひめ, ひろ, べつ, まく, みつ, みん, ら, れき, ろく, わく

1:

あおい, あか, あかつき, あかね, あき, あけぼの, あこが, あずさ, あせ, あそ, あたい, あたま, あつか, あな, あに, あめ, あら, あらし, あんず, いき, いけ, いし, いそが, いだ, いち, いと, いな, いぬ, いね, いばら, いも, いろ, いわ, うかが, うた, うつ, うで, うば, うめ, うやうや, うわ, うん, えり, おか, おき, おつ, おど, およ, おれ, おろ, おろし, かえ, かお, かか, かがみ, かき, かぎ, かけ, かたまり, かに, かの, かぶ, かべ, かま, かめ, からす, かる, かれ, かろ, かんが, がつ, がら, がわ, きく, きち, きつね, きり, ぎゅう, くう, くき, くせ, くちびる, くび, くま, くわ, げつ, こい, こえ, こおり, こし, こつ, こと, これ, ころ, ごろ, さか, さき, さくら, さま, さむ, さむらい, さら, さる, さわ, ざ, ざつ, しお, しおり, した, しの, しま, しも, しゅつ, しり, しるし, しろ, じき, じく, じゃ, すが, すき, すぎ, すく, すけ, ず, せば, せま, ぜ, ぜつ, そこ, そば, ぞん, たき, たけ, たつ, たて, たな, たに, たま, たまご, たましい, だつ, だれ, ちが, ちち, ちゃ, ちゃん, ちゅ, ちょく, つか, つくえ, つた, つて, つな, つぼ, つま, つめ, つる, づ, て, てら, で, でい, とうげ, とお, とち, とど, とら, なか, なし, なぞ, なに, なべ, なや, なり, にく, にしき, にじ, にち, にょう, ぬ, ぬま, ねい, ねこ, ねつ, のま, のろ, はこ, はさ, はた, はたけ, はだ, はつ, はと, はね, はは, はば, はま, はやし, はやぶさ, はら, はり, ひか, ひき, ひさ, ひだり, ひゃく, ひる, ふくろ, ふじ, ふつ, ふな, ふね, ふゆ, ぶた, ぶつ, へび, べい, ほく, ほし, ほそ, ほたる, ほり, ぼつ, まくら, ます, また, まつり, まど, まる, みが, みぎ, みさき, みず, みどり, みな, みみ, みゃく, みや, みんな, むかし, むぎ, むこ, むし, むすめ, むね, むら, めす, めつ, もつ, もど, もの, もも, もり, やす, やみ, やや, ゆい, ゆき, ゆび, ゆる, ようや, よこ, よど, よめ, よろ, よろこ, よん, りき, りく, りゃく, りょく, れふ, ろん, わい, わか, わが, わき, わた, わに, わら, わり, わん

10 Likes

Yes, thank you so much! I wanted to write something about mnemonics on the Guide I’m writing for people starting WK and I thought that a list like this could be very useful, mainly for people not using WK mnemonics. Can I add the list to it? (Of course, I’ll tag you as the one that collected the info).

Yeah, I think doing this for vocab is completely unnecessary :sweat_smile: It would be caos.

1 Like

Sure, feel free to use it. No need to tag me, though.

1 Like

…and this is why I’m using my mora method, so I don’t have to come up with nearly 300 different mnemonics for readings that only occur once!

1 Like

Thanks from me too for this list; it reinforces what I’m doing by showing that all 47 of the 3+ mora readings only occur once, so I am being efficient by doing 1 & 2 mora mnemonics instead of reading mnemonics.

1 Like

And how do you do mora mnemonics? Could you give me an example?

2 Likes

Belthazar’s on top of things! That’s a good example, especially as WK uses both ‘rack’ and ‘luck’ for らく.

2 Likes