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What is the reading of the town 北谷? ちゃたん or ほくたに? It is a town in Okinawa.
Most Japanese read it as Hokutani or Kitatani. Okinawans say Chatan. Is it a
dialect? Could all terms be correct?
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2018-07-24T17:36:23.720
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2018-07-24T22:09:46.900
2018-07-24T19:34:56.237
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word-choice words ateji ryukyuan-languages
What is the reading of the town 北谷?
北谷 is actually not _ateji_ , but the usual _kun'yomi_ きたたに in Okinawan.

In Okinawan, "[ _ki_ changes to
_ch_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_language)", so one gets

> _kitatani_ → _chitatani_ > _chitatan_ > _chatan_

the first step being _ki_ → _chi_ , the second dropping the last _i_ and the
last dropping the first _t_ (and contracting _chi a_ > _cha_ ).

As a name of the particular town in Okinawa, it has only one reading in
Japanese, namely ちゃたん. However, there are other towns written 北谷 with readings
[きたや](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E8%B0%B7_\(%E8%8D%89%E5%8A%A0%E5%B8%82\))
or
[きただに](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E8%B0%B7%E6%9D%91_\(%E6%96%B0%E6%BD%9F%E7%9C%8C\)).
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2018-07-24T19:33:15.913
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2018-07-24T22:09:46.900
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