14802
I'm working out my Japanese by trying to read everything around me, including
food packages.

On my milk carton written inside a large arrow pointing to the spout is "あけぐち"
in hiragana.

Obviously this is equivalent to English "open here", "pour here", "spout" etc,
but I want to _understand_ it literally, piece by piece, to improve my grammar
knowledge and ability to make my own sentences, etc.

So is this a noun phrase made up of just 開{あ}け and 口{ぐち}?

Is the ～け okurigana for some kind of verb ending? Does it maybe change it from
a verb to a noun so that it can enter into a compound with ぐち?

It seems not to be regarded as a word in its own right as its not in EDIC.
Surprisingly Google Translate offers only "akeguchi"!

Or am I totally off the mark? What would be ways to translate it into English
very literally?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-09T09:21:01.470
14800
2018-12-31T08:35:25.240
2014-03-11T00:16:21.260
125
125
question
hiragana compounds okurigana parsing renyōkei
How to parse "あけぐち"?
Would it surprise you if I told you that you are likely to have been using
Japanese words of the same structure as 「開け口」 for years already ---
「[着物]{きもの}」,「[焼]{や}き[鳥]{とり}」, 「[食]{た}べ[物]{もの}」, etc.

The structure is "[連用形]{れんようけい} of a verb + Noun". It is as simple as that.

「[開]{あ}け[口]{ぐち}」= The 連用形 of the verb [開]{あ}ける, which is [開]{あ}け + The noun
[口]{くち} = "opening mouth"

「[着物]{きもの}」= The 連用形 of the verb [着]{き}る, which is [着]{き} + The noun [物]{もの} =
"wearing things"

For those unfamiliar with the consonant change occuring in くち⇒ぐち, it is called
[連濁]{れんだく} : <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku>
CC BY-SA 4.0
2014-03-09T10:25:11.870
14802
2018-12-31T08:35:25.240
2018-12-31T08:35:25.240
9831
14800
answer