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砂利 I am fairly sure is normally read as じゃり but I saw that an alternate
reading of ざり exists.

  1. Is the ざり reading at all used in the modern language?
  2. Why じゃ・ざ and not しゃ・さ?
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2012-11-28T17:34:28.723
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2012-11-28T21:19:51.930
2012-11-28T17:57:11.723
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question
kanji readings
The reading of 砂利
The readings `サ・シャ` are from the Chinese morpheme `shā`. Usually, when `砂` is
read `サ` or `シャ`, it represents the Japanese version of this morpheme.

In this case, `砂` represents `ザ・ジャ`, which has a similar sound and meaning.
Since the reading isn't _quite_ the same, it's a hint that it _might_ not
represent the same morpheme. I decided to search for support for this idea by
looking into the etymology of `じゃり`. Although I don't have access to 日本国語大辞典
myself, I found a blogger who researched the subject and
[posted](http://hyszem.exblog.jp/1942252/#1942252_1) about it:

>
> いずれにせよ、「砂利」は漢語ではなく、中世末期から近世初期のころに、和語の「ざり」を表す熟字として案出された〝漢語めかし〟の和製漢字表記ということになります。

This seemed to confirm the idea. It appears that `じゃり` was originally of
Japanese origin, and was spelled with the kanji `砂利` at a later date.
Presumably they were chosen because `砂` represented a similar meaning, while
`砂` and `利` together represented a similar sound. Because of this, the reading
became an exception.

As for your other question, it appears that both `じゃり` and `ざり` used to be
common, but `じゃり` is more common in modern Japanese. Perhaps someone else will
be able to be more specific on this point.

_(I'm a bit outside my comfort zone on this post, so if anyone has corrections
or confirmation to give, I would be most grateful.)_
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2012-11-28T21:19:51.930
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2012-11-28T21:19:51.930
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answer