鰹

鰹

See also: 鲣

鰹 U+9C39, 鰹 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-9C39 ← 鰸 [U+9C38] CJK Unified Ideographs 鰺 → [U+9C3A]

Translingual

Han character

鰹 (Kangxi radical 195, 魚+11, 22 strokes, cangjie input 弓火尸水土 (NFSEG), four-corner 2731₄, composition ⿰魚堅)

1. a skipjack tuna, a bonito, Katsuwonus pelamis (Japanese)
2. a great eel (Classical Chinese)
3. a kind of shark

References

• KangXi: page 1477, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 46437
• Dae Jaweon: page 2008, character 28
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4709, character 14
• Unihan data for U+9C39

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Chinese

trad.		鰹
simp.		鲣

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (臣) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
臤	*kʰaːn, *kʰriːn, *ɡiːn, *kʰins
掔	*kʰriːn, *kʰiːn
慳	*kʰriːn
藖	*ɡriːn, *ɡriːns
堅	*kiːn
鋻	*kiːn, *kiːns
鰹	*kiːn
蜸	*kʰiːnʔ
菣	*kʰiːns, *kʰins
賢	*ɡiːn
礥	*ɡiːn, *ɢrin
臔	*ɡiːnʔ
挋	*kiŋs
臣	*ɡiŋ
茞	*ɡiŋ
腎	*ɡjinʔ
頣	*hŋiŋʔ
緊	*kinʔ
嚚	*ŋɡriŋ
鏗	*kʰreːŋ
摼	*kʰreːŋ
硻	*kʰreːŋ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *kiːn) : semantic 魚 + phonetic 堅 (OC *kiːn).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): jiān (jian¹)

  (Zhuyin): ㄐㄧㄢ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): gin¹
• Min Nan (POJ): kian

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: jiān
    • Zhuyin: ㄐㄧㄢ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: jian
    • Wade–Giles: chien¹
    • Yale: jyān
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: jian
    • Palladius: цзянь (czjanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡ɕjɛn⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: gin¹
    • Yale: gīn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: gin¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: gin¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /kiːn⁵⁵/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kian
    • Tâi-lô: kian
    • Phofsit Daibuun: kiefn
    • IPA (Xiamen): /kiɛn⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /kiɛn³³/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /kiɛn⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Taipei): /kiɛn⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /kiɛn⁴⁴/

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• Middle Chinese: /ken/

Rime
Character	鰹
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	見 (28)
Final (韻)	先 (85)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	IV
Fanqie	古賢切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ken/
Pan Wuyun	/ken/
Shao Rongfen	/kɛn/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/kɛn/
Li Rong	/ken/
Wang Li	/kien/
Bernard Karlgren	/kien/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	jiān
Expected Cantonese Reflex	gin1

• Old Chinese

  (Zhengzhang): /*kiːn/

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	鰹
Reading #	1/1
No.	1332
Phonetic component	臣
Rime group	眞
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	堅
Old Chinese	/*kiːn/
Notes	見爾雅

Definitions

鰹

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds

鰹魚／鲣鱼

鰹魚花／鲣鱼花

鰹鳥／鲣鸟 (jiānniǎo)

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Japanese

Kanji

鰹

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. skipjack tuna, oceanic bonito

Readings

• Go-on: けん (ken)
• Kan-on: けん (ken)
• Kun: かつお (katsuo, 鰹)^{←かつを (katuwo, historical)}

Etymology

Kanji in this term
鰹
かつお Hyōgaiji
kun’yomi

Alternative spellings
堅魚 松魚

From Old Japanese katuwo. Found in the Man'yōshū of 759.[1]

/katuwo/ → /kat͡suwo/ → /kat͡suo/

Two possible derivations:

• A shift from a compound of 堅 (kata-, stem meaning "firm, hard") +‎ 魚 (uo, “fish”), from the long-standing practice of drying lower-grade tuna into hard blocks, in part due to the common presence of parasites. A folk etymology also derives this kanji character, compare 木工 → 杢 (moku, “woodworker”, archaic) and 麻呂 → 麿 (maro, first-person pronoun, archaic).
• A shift from a compound of 勝つ (katsu, “to win”) +‎ 魚 (uo, “fish”).

Considering the rules of Old Japanese phonology, specifically that two vowels are not allowed in sequence, resulting in elision or fusion, the kata + uo → katuo shift seems likely.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) かつお [kàtsúó] (Heiban – [0])[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠t͡sɨᵝo̞]

Noun

鰹(かつお) • (katsuo) ^{←かつを (katuwo)?}

1. a skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis
2. Short for 鰹木 (katsuogi): a log on the roof of a shrine set perpendicular to the ridgepole
3. Short for 鰹節 (katsuobushi): smoked and dried skipjack tuna
4. (obsolete) Short for 鰹虫 (katsuomushi): a biting midge; a water strider

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 秋(あき)鰹(がつお) (akigatsuo, “bonito caught in autumn”, obscure)
• 鰹(かつお)木(ぎ) (katsuogi, “shrine log”)
• 鰹(カツオ)鯨(クジラ) (katsuokujira, “Eden's whale, Bryde's whale”, Balaenoptera edeni)
• 鰹(かつお)だし, 鰹(かつお)出汁(だし), 鰹(かつお)出(だ)し (katsuodashi, “(dried) bonito stock”)
• 鰹(カツオ)鳥(ドリ) (katsuodori, “brown booby”, Sula leucogaster)
• 鰹(かつお)の烏(え)帽(ぼ)子(し) (katsuo no eboshi, “Portuguese man-of-war”, Physalia physalis)
• 鰹節(かつぶし) (katsubushi), 鰹(かつ)節(おぶし) (katsuobushi, “katsuobushi”)
• 鰹(かつお)味噌(みそ) (katsuomiso, “miso mixed with bonito”)
• 縞(シマ)鰹(ガツオ) (shimagatsuo, “Pacific pomfret”, Brama japonica)
• 宗(ソウ)太(ダ)鰹(ガツオ) (sōdagatsuo, “frigate tuna”, genus Auxis spp.)
• 歯(ハ)鰹(ガツオ) (hagatsuo, “striped bonito”, Sarda orientalis)
• 初松(はつ)魚(がつお), 初(はつ)鰹(がつお) (hatsugatsuo, “first bonito of the season”)
• 花(はな)鰹(かつお) (hanakatsuo), 花(はな)鰹(がつお) (hanagatsuo, “dried bonito shavings​”)
• 真(マ)魚(ナ)鰹(ガツオ) (managatsuo, a species of butterfish, Pampus punctatissimus)

Descendants

• New Latin: Katsuwonus

Proper noun

鰹(かつお) • (katsuo) ^{←かつを (katuwo)?}

1. a surname

References

1. c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 9, poem 1740), available online here. Katuwo appears spelled as 堅魚. While this does not phonetically spell katuwo itself, given the meter of the poetry, this word must have three morae, and given Old Japanese phonology, we know that this cannot have been kata uwo due to the restriction on successive vowels.
2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
3. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN

Further reading

• Entry at Nihon Jiten (in Japanese)
• Entry at Gogen Yurai Jiten ("Etymology Derivation Dictionary", in Japanese)

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Korean

Hanja

鰹 • (gyeon) (hangeul 견, revised gyeon, McCune–Reischauer kyŏn, Yale kyen)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

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Vietnamese

Han character

鰹: Hán Nôm readings: kiên

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.