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How can the kanji for mountain be read as both san and yama?
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Japanese language
Record of a haiku exchange on kaishi writing paper by Japanese poet Bashō and one of his pupils in the teacher's own handwriting, 17th century, from a hanging scroll (ink on paper).
The kanji for mountain (山) can be read as both san and yama due to the dual-reading system developed as the Japanese language integrated Chinese characters (kanji).12
This dual reading consists of:
- On-yomi (Sino-Japanese reading): This is based on the original Chinese pronunciation of the character as it was interpreted by the Japanese when the characters were first adopted. In this case, san is the on-yomi reading.12
- Kun-yomi (Japanese reading): This assigns the native Japanese word that corresponds to the character's meaning. In this case, yama is the kun-yomi reading, representing the indigenous Japanese word for "mountain."12
This practice emerged as the Japanese established a relationship between Chinese characters and their native semantic equivalents. Because Chinese pronunciations were borrowed from different regions and historical periods, many characters evolved to have multiple readings, allowing them to function both as parts of compound words and as standalone native terms.2