Korean Hanja Readings vs Japanese On'yomi: Sound Patterns
Know one reading and you can guess the other
When reading the same Kanji in Korean and Japanese, regular pronunciation patterns emerge. Both diverged from Middle Chinese pronunciation.
Key Patterns
Korean final "ㄱ" ↔ Japanese "-ku/-ki"
- 학(學) → がく, 국(國) → こく, 식(食) → しょく
Korean final "ㄴ" ↔ Japanese "-n"
- 인(人) → じん, 만(萬) → まん, 산(山) → さん
Korean final "ㅇ" ↔ Japanese long vowel "-u/-i"
- 영(英) → えい, 동(東) → とう, 정(正) → せい
Korean final "ㄹ" ↔ Japanese "-tsu"
- 발(發) → はつ, 일(一) → いち, 월(月) → げつ
Memorizing about 10 of these patterns lets you fairly accurately infer Japanese pronunciation of new Sino-Korean words.
Key Points
1
Final ㄱ → -ku/-ki (학→がく)
2
Final ㄴ → -n (인→じん)
3
Final ㅇ → long vowel -u/-i (영→えい)
4
Final ㄹ → -tsu (발→はつ)
Use Cases
Inferring On'yomi from Korean pronunciation for JLPT study
Quick Sino-word conversion in KR-JP simultaneous interpretation