Just something that popped out at me as I was watching an anime and wanted to bring it up.
引き分け is read as ひきわけ in wanikani, as one would expect, but the show I was watching furigana’d it as はんぶんこ.
Is this actually another reading, or is there something more complicated at play here, like an acceptability of projecting synonyms’ readings onto more common writings?
Isn’t that like splitting something evenly in half?
Edit:
I asked the Japanese person beside me and she doesn’t know but maybe Leebo does as he is typing right now.
In manga, often they will put furigana on things that show you what was actually said, and the thing the furigana are attached to represents what was meant. It doesn’t mean that the thing actually has that as a valid reading in a dictionary.
Ah. Thank you. I suspected this was the case, but had never noticed it happening until now. Good to know.
WHAT, i thought it’s the opposite, furigana represents what was actually meant and what they’re attracted to is what was actually said. I have been reading wrong the whole time…
I suppose if you can give an example we could look at that and see.
Definitely wasn’t the case here. The narrator said はんぶんこ, and the intended meaning was clearly ‘tie’.
Gosh that’s annoying haha
No, it’s definitely what Leebo said. A simple example is in the manga Aria. When they refer to Earth, it’s written as 地球. Out loud they are saying “Manhome”, and the kanji tells you they are referring to Earth.
@kyledoyle When used sparingly it’s actually kind of cool. It allows the author to explain things without insane amounts of text.
Right, I think I’ve seen this in Steins Gate where the title is written in furigana but someplaceholder kanji with no phonetic relevance offering a feeling for what is meant is given in the main text.
Like when the lead character says これもシュタインズゲートの選択だろう or something to that effect the katakana is furigana above kanji with meaning implied but zero phonetic link. Other times there is furigana like ひとしずく above 一滴 where it’s just a reading. It uses both.
If you think of it, even furigana in normal usage is simply showing how you would speak those kanji aloud. It’s the same when the furigana is being used to do clever things - the furigana is what they say, the kanji is what they mean.
For example, the Aria manga writes the furigana for 船 as ゴンドラ. It’s set in kinda-Venice, you see, so “gondola” is what they’re saying, but “boat” is what they mean.
One more example: Negi’s spells in the Negima manga are written in kanji, but the furigana is actually transliterated Latin (with similar, but more poetic, meaning). So Negi is chanting the spells in Latin, but they’re also written in kanji for the benefit of the reader.
I didn’t run into something like this except for once actually, I don’t remember where but it was some kind of pun for a funny joke so it’s highly likely that I got that wrong
yeah, i guess i take them as a Japanese-style footnote and that’t why i got it wrong
Looks like I have something new on my reading list now
Yeah that is kind of cool in a scifi/fantasy sense. I can see where it would be very useful in situations where the furigana would be needed for Japanese natives.
これも運命石の扉の選択だろう 
I don’t know how to put furigana
Like this (to use @seanblue’s example):
{ruby}地球{rt}マンホーム{/rt}{/ruby}
But replace the { and } with < and >.
(Edit: Geh, I meant to change the “reply to” post before submitting. This was meant to be for you, @sigolino)
That’s it. I wasn’t home and was trying to search for it online haha. He says it in the first couple of screens of the prologue. “Fate’s stone gate” type feeling was what I took from that as the made up word’s intent. Edit: though iirc he explains it immediately after as meaning 神々の意志 or 運命のsomething. The will of the gods.
Aaah someone who else who watched Kaguya Sama. I asked some Japanese learners and this is what I found out. Apparently the word 半分こ (はんぶんこ) is the childish of split something evenly. However, the more adult version is 引き分. The narrator spoke out the childish form but included the adult kanji for us older folks binging 
Hope this helps
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.