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I'm reading a book that contains this sentence:

携帯やパソコンでのメール等｛とう｝のやり取りすらしていない・・・

My first instinct is to read 等 as など, but it has explicitly been given the pronunciation とう via the ruby characters in the text. Of course, とう is a valid reading for 等, but usually only in compound words. Is this a typo, or am I missing some hidden meaning?

This context perfectly fits with the following dictionary definition (デジタル大辞泉), hence my inclination to read it as など:

など【▽等／×抔 】

１ 一例を挙げ、あるいは、いくつか並べたものを総括して示し、それに限らず、ほかにも同種類のものがあるという意を表す。…なんか。「赤や黄―の落ち葉」

macraf
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TheSleeve
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1 Answers1

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Both readings are valid in this sentence, and they're semantically the same. But とう sounds much more formal.

FWIW, 常用漢字表 only gives the readings of とう and ひと-しい for this kanji. など is widely used, but it's a kind of customary reading.

naruto
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    Thanks. I have never heard the とう reading in "real world" Japanese, but in this book, the character who speaks the line has a sort of odd way of speaking, so perhaps that's why he chooses the more formal reading. – TheSleeve Feb 18 '16 at 22:15