Kan-on

Kan-on or kan'on (漢音, Japanese pronunciation: [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]

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

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