99709
From the Chuunibyou anime, Kumin's last name is Tsuyuri (3 characters), but
written as 五月七日 (4 kanji characters). How can this be? At first, I thought it
might just be a chuuni thing, where you write a bunch of kanji and give it a
different reading just to be edgy. But then I found that Tsuyuri is the
standard reading for that 4-kanji combo. So yeah, how can that be?
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2023-05-21T17:09:06.973
99708
2023-05-21T17:56:49.343
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kanji etymology readings names multiple-readings
How is Tsuyuri Kumin's name (五月七日くみん) read with 3 characters when it's made up of 4 kanji?
Say we have a Japanese word that has a meaning, and we want to write it using
kanji. If we cannot find any corresponding character, we have the option of
combining characters and assigning the _combination_ of those characters a
reading. Maybe you've already seen this in words like 大人{おとな}, 明日{あした} and
七夕{たなばた}. This is called 熟字訓{じゅくじくん} and is a form of 当{あ}て字{じ}. There is no
reason the number of kanji can't be greater than the number of kana in the
reading, since the individual characters don't have anything to do with the
reading.

Now, for this particular name, apparently there used to be a rainmaking
festival on May 7th (五月七日) called つゆいり祭り, meaning "beginning of rainy season
festival". May 7th in the Japanese lunar calendar corresponds to around the
beginning of June in today's calendar, which is when the rainy season starts
in Japan. Now, つゆいり went through some sound shifts and became つゆり or ついり.

Sources: [ピクシブ百科事典](https://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%86%E3%82%8A),
[実用日本語表現辞典](http://www.practical-japanese.com/2018/09/blog-post_52.html)
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2023-05-21T17:56:49.343
99709
2023-05-21T17:56:49.343
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