Hi, I am a beginner in Japanese language and I just read the vocab 安心。While most of the vocab that I have read so far which contains a body part have the kun’yomi reading, why doesn’t this follow the same pattern? Thanks, あきひこ

Perhaps because 心 isn’t a body part(although you’ll notice that the “rules” for readings are often broken randomly for some unknown reason). 心 refers to the figurative heart, so it can also be translated as spirit or something like that. The word for the physical organ is 心臓 although this also uses …

If you expected kunyomi, it would be やすこころ or やすごころ or something, no? Anyway, 心 appears in many words with its onyomi. My guess for the real reason is that this word simply came from Chinese, rather than Japanese. Kunyomi words typically existed in Japanese before the kanji were imported, and やすごころ…

Oh yes, but I still haven’t read the kun’yomi for 安。So I just typed with whatever I knew :sweat_smile: Thank you for the explanation. Makes a lot of sense.

Haha, yeah. That’s what I have learnt so far. It’s full of exceptions. But then I felt there might have been some reasoning behind this and wanted to ask it as a question. Is there a good resource through which we can find the reasoning behind the readings? Or a place where I can find the origin for…

[image] akihikoo: Is there a good resource through which we can find the reasoning behind the readings? Or a place where I can find the origin for the words? Wiktionary

There is an extensive literature on the history of the Japanese language and the complexity of the development of its system of writing, and I’m sure that all this information is available digitally, although as a 年輩 I still prefer paper. Basically the difficulties encountered in determining the pro…

Another quick and dirty rule would be that when the meaning has to do with a feeling 安 will most likely be read あん versus when the word means something is cheap then it would be read やす. Not 100% of the time but it is just a quick and dirty rule.

While there are various etymological reasons that could help explain the distinction, it’s probably easiest (and most instructive, down the line) to just remember that 心 has basically an entirely figurative meaning, as the first reply notes. Only in combination with 臓, for “organ,” as 心臓 (しんぞう), doe…

This word was directly imported from (Mandarin) Chinese. Mandarin: 安心 (ān xīn) Japanese: 安心 (an shin) Same meaning and almost identical pronounciation.

Not Mandarin, Middle Chinese. Mandarin is a much newer version of the Chinese language. The Japanese imported it long before Mandarin was a thing. 安心 - Wiktionary (Mandarin probably also inherited it from Middle Chinese as well.) @akihikoo I recommend this Tofugu article about the history of kanji…

Why is 安心あんしん and not あんこころ/やすこころ？

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Why is 安心 あんしん and not あんこころ/やすこころ？

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Why is 安心あんしん and not あんこころ/やすこころ？