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Why is the correct counter for rabbits 羽（わ）, the counter that is used for
birds.

I figured it is because they jump, cause fly and jump are the same verb in
Japanese, but then frogs are 匹.
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etymology counters
Why is the correct counter for rabbits 羽（わ）
The usual story is that Japanese Buddhist monks, who were unable to eat meat
other than birds, liked the taste of rabbit so much that they "reclassified"
them as flightless birds due to their various body features.
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2011-06-19T05:53:37.453
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羽(わ) is used because there is some stories that rabbit live in Moon, but using
匹（ひき）is also not wrong, and even sometimes used 一耳(ひとみみ）.

Jump and Fly both can read as とぶ、but they have different Kanjis 跳ぶ, 飛ぶ.
actually, so may be that's not the reason, I think ....
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2011-06-19T06:24:34.510
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I also heard the Buddhist monk story, but another theory is that while the
word ウサギ is theorized to have come to Japanese from a Sanskrit origin through
Korea, it was reinterpreted by some as う+鷺, providing a linguistic connection
to birds and to the 羽 counter.
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2011-06-19T06:43:47.480
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The Sanskrit origin feels most satisfying, but I'll add one more that
Wikipedia mentions: hunters would carry their kills by the ears, tying them up
and carrying them in bundles. One bundle would be 一把 (いちわ), two
二把...supposedly counting rabbits in this way, わ became associated with 羽.
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2011-06-19T09:04:40.440
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When I lived in Japan 40 years ago it was explained to me that in feudal times
the peasants were forbidden to eat animals, only birds, fish etc. But as
rabbits were in plentiful supply in a typically Japanese way they used the
bird counter as a solution to allow themselves to eat rabbits without penalty.
Whether that’s true or not I don’t know but it was a good story.
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I'd like to add a note about the etymology of うさぎ, which is touched upon in
multiple posts on this thread.

### Theories of a compound seem unlikely

Some sources ([ _Nihon Jiten_](http://www.nihonjiten.com/data/45890.html),
[_Gogen Yurai Jiten_](https://gogen-yurai.jp/usagi/)) describe modern うさぎ as a
compound of ancient う ("rabbit") plus native Japanese term 鷺【さぎ】 ("white egret
or heron") in reference to the white color.

  * Rabbits generally aren't white. In fact, the word for "rabbit; hare" in English and many other languages traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "grey", a more common color for hares and rabbits.

These same references describe an alternative origin for the _sagi_ ending in
a borrowing from Sansrkit _sasaka_.

  * This is also problematic, as Sanskrit terms were generally higher-register as part of the Buddhist tradition, and were not widely used for compounding.
  * In addition, the Sanskrit term [शशक ( _śaśaka_ )](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%95#Sanskrit) includes the consonant value //ɕ//, basically identical to the consonant in Japanese し, and thus would likely have been borrowed as シャシャカ, not ササカ.
  * Also, this Sanskrit term is a derived diminutive form of base noun [शश ( _śaśa_ )](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B6#Sanskrit), adding the diminutive suffix [-क ( _-ka_ )](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-%E0%A4%95#Sanskrit). Even assuming that this derived form might have been borrowed into early Japanese, I can find no clear and compelling mechanism or reason for an ending _-ka_ to metamorphose into _-gi_.

### Ancient forms and evidence in Eastern Old Japanese

While those sources point to う as the oldest form of the word for "rabbit",
this isn't strictly true, from what I can find. The 兎【う】 entry in the
日本国語大辞典【にほんこくごだいじてん】 (NKD) dictionary cites this to a passage in the
日本書紀【にほんしょき】 of 720:

> 問菟。此云塗毘宇。菟穗名。此云宇保那。

In both cases, the Chinese term 菟 is rendered in phonetic Old Japanese as 宇 or
_u_. 塗毘宇 or _tobiu_ is presumably a precursor to modern 跳兎【とびうさぎ】, but I have
no idea what 宇保那 or _upona_ is supposed to be. While this does show _u_ used
to mean "rabbit", there are cases in Old Japanese of terms used in
abbreviation, such as [坂 _saka_ abbreviated to just
_sa_](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%9D%82-508847).

In addition, the 万葉集【まんようしゅう】 collection of poetry was completed in 759 and
includes poems dating back another hundred years or so. [Poem
3529](http://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/manyoshu/Man14Yo.html#3529) records
the eastern dialectal Japanese word for "rabbit" in phonetic _man'yōgana_ as
乎佐藝【をさぎ】. Eastern Japanese would be even less likely to include borrowed and
compounded Sanskrit words.

### Possible cognates outside of Japan

Looking outside of Japonic, the Korean word for "rabbit" is [토끼 ( _tokki_
)](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%ED%86%A0%EB%81%BC), from older Middle
Korean 톳〮기〮 ( _thwóskí_ ), with dialectal variant *투ᄭᅵ〮 ( _*thwùskí_ ). This
in turn has been linked to modern Oroqen term
[tʊkʃakɪ](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/t%CA%8Ak%CA%83ak%C9%AA#Oroqen), and
reconstructed proto-Tungusic _*tuksaki_ ("hare"), apparently a derivation from
_*tuksa_ ("to run") + nominalizing suffix _-ki_.

While certainly not a perfect match, there may be room for Japonic _wosagi_ or
_usagi_ to be related to Tungusic _*tuksaki_ or descendant Middle Korean term
_thwóskí_ and dialectal form _thwùskí_. The latter even comes close to
aligning with the pitch accent pattern of modern Japanese [うさぎ]{LHH}.

* * *

### Counters

As far as the choice of counters goes, I haven't seen anything in my
references, but my personal theory is that this was at least partly influenced
by the way a rabbit's ears stick up, not too terribly unlike the 羽 pictogram
of wings.

FWIW, [the NKD entry for 羽【わ】](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%BE%BD-438133)
cites a text from 1548 for the first appearance of this used as a counter,
which is much later than the first appearance of the word _usagi_.
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