When is the "しりつ" reading of "市立" used?

Question

In various dictionaries, the word "市立" has "しりつ" listed as the main reading. However, they then go on to list the reading "いちりつ", with a note saying "when spoken to avoid confusion with 私立【しりつ】". This makes sense, as having the same pronunciation for two words that are completely opposite to each other would be... confusing, to say the least.

But in that case, when is しりつ actually used for 市立? If people pronounce it いちりつ "when spoken", is there at all a case where しりつ is used? And why is it listed as the main reading in dictionaries?

Answer 1

If I encounter unprefixed 市立大学, I would probably read it as いちりつだいがく to avoid any confusion. But when I read 市立 as part of a longer proper noun including the city name, I would use しりつ.

• 横浜市立大学　よこはましりつだいがく
• 川崎市立川崎高等学校　かわさきしりつかわさきこうとうがっこう

Private schools never have the word 私立 as part of their proper school names. So whenever you hear Xしりつ, it should mean X市立, and you don't have to use いちりつ. (Reading it as いちりつ is not wrong, though)

By the way, in conversation, if you hear a mother say うちの子供をシリツの学校に行かせたい, it usually means 私立の学校に行かせたい. The opposing idea of 私立 is 公立 (government-run schools) in general, and people usually don't say something as specific as 子供を市立の学校に行かせたい.

The same is basically true for 科学/化学, etc. While it's common to read 化学 as ばけがく, longer compounds like 化学反応式 are almost never read as ばけがくはんのうしき or such.

Answer 2

しりつ is the "proper" reading, but because there is ample opportunity for misunderstanding, say, 市立大学, "municipal university" as 私立大学, "private university", people often say いちりつ for the sake of clarity. In the same way, because situations often arise in which かがく could be either 科学, "science" or 化学, "chemistry", people often pronounce 化学 as ばけがく. A similar case in Englsh is "oral" and "aural". People often pronounce "aural" as "ow-ral" (first syllable rhyming with "cow") for the sake of clarity. I think all native-speakers are aware that いちりつ has a limited special purpose, and if reading a written text, either to themselves or out loud, would use しりつ.

Answer 3

When 市立（中学校｛ちゅうがっこう｝）and 私立（中学校）are well known in the same degree among the members of the conversation, abruptly to say しりつ（中学校） may cause confusion. In order to say which 中学校 you want to tell without confusion, you should say 市立｛いちりつ｝ or 私立｛わたくしりつ｝ instead of しりつ.

I think you know the term "the universe of discourse", whose simple definition is: All things under consideration during a discussion, examination, or study.

いちりつ or わたくしりつ is only used when 市立｛しりつ｝ and 私立｛しりつ｝ are in "the universe of discourse" and also the speaker thinks to say しりつ may cause confusion.