17889
I am confused in determining the correct way to write furigana.

  1. Is a furigana only allowed to be attached to a single kanji character? In other words, can a furigana attached to more than one kanji character? If a furigana can only be attached to a single kanji, how to write furiganas for, e.g., 今日?

  2. Where should the `っ` which is the small つ be positioned in furiganas for words, e.g., 一緒? Which one is the correct one? 一{い} 緒{っしょ} or 一{いっ} 緒{しょ}?

  3. Is it correct to write 居{い}所{どころ} instead of 居{い}所{ところ}?
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2014-07-21T04:59:44.623
17888
2014-07-21T08:38:55.270
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question
furigana
What is the rule to write furigana (ruby)?
If you're taking care to write the readings over the characters they belong to
(which people don't always do), then geminated consonants belong to the first
kanji:

> **学{がく}** + 校{こう} _**gaku** + kō_ ＝ **学{がっ}** 校{こう} _**gak** kō_

As you can see, the consonant still belongs to the first kanji. **_Gak_** is a
reduced form of **_gaku_** , having lost its final vowel **u**. Likewise, in
your example you would split **一** 緒 into **いっ** and しょ.

Sometimes readings are assigned to entire compounds rather than to individual
kanji. Although **今** 日 was historically compositional ( ** _ke** + pu_),
these days it's treated as a 熟字訓 reading--a reading assigned to an entire
compound, rather than made up of the individual readings normally associated
with those characters. So in cases like these, it makes more sense not to try
to split them up:

> **今日{きょう}** _**kyō**_

In your last example, **ど** ころ _**d** okoro_ is a
[rendaku](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku)'ed form of **と** ころ _**t**
okoro_. Just like with our earlier examples of **がっ** **_gak_** and **いっ**
**_is_** , we'll write it the way it's pronounced, rather than trying to
represent an "underlying" pronunciation with the /t/ intact:

> 居{い} + **所{ところ}** _i_ + _**tokoro**_ ＝ 居{い} **所{どころ}** _i **dokoro**_

Generally, you should write furigana with the standard pronunciation of the
word you're writing, unless you're trying to specifically emphasize another
pronunciation. Since Japanese spelling was reformed recently and is now
relatively accurate, that makes things fairly simple.

You'll find that there are people who pronounce a few words differently than
they're spelled. Normally, you would write:

> **女王{じょおう}・体育{たいいく}・雰囲気{ふんいき}** rather than **女王{じょうおう}・体育{たいく}・雰囲気{ふいんき}**

In these cases, I think it's better to write them like the left--unless you're
trying to specifically indicate that you pronounce them like on the right.
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2014-07-21T05:31:06.187
17889
2014-07-21T06:32:33.863
2014-07-21T06:32:33.863
17888
answer
I'm just addressing #1, since snailboat covered the other ones very well.

> Is a furigana only allowed to be attached to a single kanji character?

No. In fact, it's common to attach furigana to a kanji compound, as seen in

  * [Matcha (やさしい日本語 version)](http://mcha-easy.com/)
  * [NHK Web Easy](http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/index.html)
  * [City of Tsukuba's site (やさしい日本語 version)](http://www.tsukubainfo.jp/jp/)

There are also some that attach furigana to single kanji

  * [Hiragana Times](http://www.hiraganatimes.com/ja/). Here's a screenshot 

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EEoAS.png)

  * [Asagaku](http://www.asagaku.com/) (Asahi Shimbun's newspapers for students - [PDF samples here](http://www.asagaku.com/shidoku.html))
  * Manga (not sure if this applies to all manga with furigana though). Here's a screenshot 

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cjThi.jpg)

Some sites use both (furigana on single kanji and furigana on kanji
compounds), like [kids goo.ne.jp](http://kids.goo.ne.jp/)

I think which one is used ultimately depends on ratio of kanji font size to
hiragana font size. If the ratio is large enough, then furigana is applied to
single kanji.

* * *

p/s: Hmmm, screenshots might be too large...
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2014-07-21T07:59:50.243
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answer