9744
かわいい is sometimes spelled in kanji as 可愛い. This seems to be an 音読み reading
which points to a Chinese loan, and Chinese does have this word.

However, the meaning of 可愛 as "cute" in Chinese seems to have been a borrowing
from Japanese. Originally it meant what its individual kanji meant,
"able/deserved to be loved". For example, the Chinese Union Version of the
Bible, translated in 1919, often uses 可愛 to mean "deserving of love", which is
incongruent with its modern meaning borrowed from Japanese.

Also, かわいい seems to have been かはいい in 歴史的仮名遣い. はい would have come from "pai"
which would be a stretch from _on'yomi_.

So 可愛い seems to be 和語. Why then did it get assigned a pseudo-音読み reading?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-11T05:35:20.023
9743
2012-12-11T06:51:37.693
2960
question
words readings loanwords
Is かわいい wago or kango?
It is native Japanese (和語). It is a compound of
[kao](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E9%A1%94&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss)
(顔) and
[hayui](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%81%AF%E3%82%86%E3%81%97&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss)
(映ゆい). A simplified view of the phonological development is kapopayu-ki >
kaɸoɸayu-ki > kawowayu-ki > kaowayu-ki > kawayu-ki > kawayu-i > kawai-i. Other
than the normal p > ɸ > w > Ø, the two major changes are 1) merge of owa > wa
and yu > i. 可愛 is ateji (当て字).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-11T05:51:24.113
9744
2012-12-11T06:51:37.693
2012-12-11T06:51:37.693
1141
1141
9743
answer