On'yomi

On'yomi (Japanese: 音読み; [oɰ̃.jo.mi], lit. 'sound reading') or ondoku (音読; [on.do.kɯ]) is a way of homophonically reading kanji (Chinese characters) in Japanese. The on (音; [oɴ], lit. 'sounds') here are the approximated pronunciations, using Japanese consonants and vowels, of historical Chinese words. In contrast, the "readings" acquired from the translations of those same Chinese words into Japanese are known as kun'yomi.

A single kanji might have multiple on'yomi pronunciations, reflecting the Chinese pronunciations from different time periods or regions. On'yomi pronunciations are generally classified into go-on, kan-on, tō-on and kan'yō-on, roughly based on when they were borrowed from Chinese during the peaks of the Sinosphere.

Generally, on'yomi pronunciations are used for technical, compound words, which were mostly foreign loanwords from Ancient China; while the native kun'yomi pronunciation is used for singular, simpler words.

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