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This is one of my most frequently encountered words and yet outside of
specific constructs (e.g. 一言一句｛いちごんいっく｝) I am never sure if I'm reading it
right. How does it stand by itself? Dictionary entries like
[these](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/10772/m0u/) are a bit beyond me
at the moment:

> 【１】三語とも、漢字表記は「一言」。
>
> 【２】「ひとこと」が、口語としても文章語としても一般的に使われる。
>
> 【３】「いちげん」「いちごん」は、「ひとこと」の改まった言い方で、用法が限られる。

【１】 I don't understand at all. All I can grasp from [2] vs [3] is that いちげん is
more formal and used less frequently, is that so? Are there any hard rules?

よろしくお願いします
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2015-03-16T16:18:04.907
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2015-03-17T01:47:59.013
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question
word-choice meaning
ひとこと・いちげん・いちごん - what is the difference?
It seems I get to talk about this fairly often here....

Forget the kanji for a minute and "listen" to the three words. Which one
sounds "most Japanese" to you? To rephrase the question, which one sounds
"least Chinese-like"?

That would be the word that is most intuitive to the native speakers. That is
the one we will use most often because it is the one that we have been using
much longer than the other two and it is the one that is most versatile. Thus,
statement [2] stands.

**「ひとこと」 refers to any little thing you say or write. Versatile, ain't it?**

[1] simply says that all of the three words are written as 「一言」 **_if_** they
are to be written in kanji. In other words, 「一言」 can be read in three
different ways. How to read it would solely depend on the context.

Regarding [3],

「いちげん」 and 「いちごん」 sound pretty un-Japanese, don't they? On-reading words are
generally used in more formal and/or technical situations than kun-reading
words are. This, BTW, is just like how Latin-origin words are treated in
English -- "conversation" vs. "chat", "profound" vs. "deep", etc.

Generally speaking, the 「いちげん」 and 「いちごん」 readings (basically interchangeable)
are only used in ceratin idiomatic expressions like:

「一言[居士]{こじ}」 = "a ready critic" (You've gotta say something about everything.)

「一言[一句]{いっく}」 = "word by word"

Finally, as you already know, one can say 「on-reading word + する」 to form a
verb from a noun. You can naturally say 「[一言]{いちごん}する」 or 「[一言]{いちげん}する」 to
mean "to make a short statement".

You cannot, howevr, say 「[一言]{ひとこと}する」. You must say 「一言[言]{い}う」. It is as
though we instinctively know there is an important difference between 「ひとこと」
and the other two words.
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2015-03-17T01:47:59.013
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answer