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According to a page, this word is pronounced "ningen"

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cBeZg.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cBeZg.jpg)

but according to another page, the readings for 間 are

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qc64d.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qc64d.jpg)

Are they the same kanji? Is "gen" an unofficial reading or something?
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2017-06-29T18:39:58.917
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2017-06-29T23:30:59.613
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question
kanji readings
Is "gen" also a reading of this kanji? 間
> Are they the same kanji?

Yes

> Is "gen" an unofficial reading or something?

I'm not sure if it's unofficial, but you can and sometimes do read it as ゲン。

* * *

You occasionally voice some kanji readings, but I can't exactly explain why.
It has to do with the sound before the character, but I haven't studied enough
kanji to make sense of it.

Another great example of this is:
[手紙{てがみ}](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%89%8B%E7%B4%99) 。 Looking at jisho.org,
you will find that [がみ is not listed as a
reading](http://jisho.org/search/%E7%B4%99%20%23kanji), but it is still read
てがみ。

I'm not privy on the rules if there are any, but this sort of thing happens a
lot.
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It's called [Rendaku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku). Regularly in
compound words, though not always, the second part of a compound ends up
voiced. So the reading of the kanji is in essence ケン, but with a dakuten (゛)
or voice mark added to it. This gives us the reading ゲン as in the word 人間.
It's not a very common reading though, personally I can only think of one
other word using the ケン reading, and that is the word 世{せ}間{けん}.

Take the two words fire = 火{ひ} and flower = 花{はな}. Together they can form two
new words, fireworks = 花{はな}火{び} and spark = 火{ひ}花{ばな}. The reading is the
same in both except that when it appears last in a compound it gets voiced.

Why does the last part get voiced sometimes? I don't know, and I don't think
anyone definitely knows. It could make it easier to say, or it makes the two
parts more connected into a new words rather than the sum of its parts. Either
way it's something the Japanese do and worth knowing about.

_Edit_ : Example, both 忠{ちゅう}告{こく} and 中{ちゅう}国{ごく} have the same on-reading
for both kanji, however only the latter one gets voiced.
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