Kan-on

Kan-on or kan'on (漢音, kaꜜɰ̃.oɴ or kaɰ̃.oɴ, "Han sound") are Japanese kanji readings borrowed from Chinese during the Tang dynasty, from the 7th to the 9th centuries; a period which corresponds to the Japanese Nara period. They were introduced by, among others, envoys from Japanese missions to Tang China. Kan-on should not be confused with tō-on (唐音, Tang sound), which were later phonetic loans.

Kan-on are on'yomi (音読み) based on the central Chang'an pronunciation of Middle Chinese.^[1] The syllable Kan is a reading of Middle Chinese: 漢 (xan^H) as per Japanese phonology, referring to the Han dynasty, which had Chang'an as its capital city.^[1] Furthermore, Kan (漢) has also become a description for all things Chinese, e.g., kanji ('Chinese characters').

Kan'on partly displaced the earlier go-on, which were "just imitations of Korean imitations, but Kan-on were imitations of the real thing."^[1]

A minority of characters never had their kan-on transmitted to Japan; their kan-on are sometimes reconstructed in Japanese dictionaries although not specifically marked as such. A few dictionaries go as far as to discard attested kan-on in favour of more systematic pronunciations.^[1]

Characteristics as compared to go-on

In consonants

In vowels

See also

• On'yomi: Sino-Japanese readings
  • Go-on: an earlier type of reading
  • Tō-on: a later type of reading
• Checked tone

References

1. ^ Miyake, Marc Hideo (2003). Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction. Routledge. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-134-40373-8.