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There are two 訓読み readings of 歳: とし and とせ. Looking at はたち (二十歳), a reasonable
hypothesis would be "ち is a contraction of とし". I know very little about sound
shifting in Japanese. Is とせ more recent than とし? Is /si/ -> /se/ (or /i/ ->
/e/) a common phenomenon?
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2014-03-21T01:12:55.840
14976
2014-03-21T07:00:48.593
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question
etymology readings
訓読み for 歳: とせ vs. とし
I know I've seen とし in classical Japanese texts before; don't know about とせ
offhand. That said, the few examples I can find in the dictionary using とせ all
pair it with native Japanese numbers (一年【ひととせ】, 百歳【ももとせ】, 千歳【ちとせ】, etc.),
which suggests that its history is close to as long. As such, my hypothesis
would be that it's something of a counter variant for it, kind of like how
Chinese numbers would use 年【ねん】 or 歳【さい】.
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2014-03-21T01:17:55.627
14977
2014-03-21T01:17:55.627
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answer
Classical Japanese is not necessarily my forte but here is what I do know.

I would say that the two readings are just as old as each other because they
both appear in Classical Japanese. As far as I know, the reading depends on
the positioning of 「歳」 in a word. Needless to say, I am only talking about
[大和言葉]{やまとことば}, not loanwords from Chinese.

When 「歳」 appears at the beginning of a word or it is used by itself, it is
read 「とし」.

> 「[歳]{とし}」= "year"
>
> 「[歳返]{としかへ}る」= "the year changes" or "the new year comes"
>
> 「[歳長]{とした}く」= "to get old"

When 「歳」 appears in another place in a word, it is read 「とせ」.

> The examples that @Kaji listed
>
> 「[幾年]{いくとせ}」= "(how) many years"
>
> 「[千歳飴]{ちとせあめ}」= "a candy for kids that people buy to pray for longevity"

There might be exceptions out there that I am not aware of. I ask the experts
here to feel free to correct me.
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2014-03-21T07:00:48.593
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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