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The question is very simple: how many kanji there are that have a 'unique' ON-reading, not shared by any other kanji? Or, as it is probably a too general question given the variety of kanji: how many one-kanji ON-readings exist in the Joyo list? Do any of those readings gain additional kanji if we start to consider Jinmeiyo-kanji / non-Joyo-kanji / non-standard readings? Tricky readings like [頁]{ページ} or [糎]{センチメートル} are excluded.

Example, which I know: the チャ reading is only with 茶 while we are in Joyo, but if we extend our search, there are at least 茗 and 楪 which share the same.

Alexander Z.
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  • Interesting question, I wonder if the scope of the question might get to be a little broad (I'm not an expert on kanji). Are you digging for something specific? – ajsmart May 24 '18 at 17:31
  • 「チャ」cannot be an on’yomi for「茗」or「楪」- that is not their Chinese-derived pronunciation. Those two may have been used as synonyms for「茶」, so this is a case where the characters have a kun’yomi (「ちゃ」) which is from the on’yomi of another character. – dROOOze May 25 '18 at 00:18
  • @droooze 楪(ちゃ) is a true Chinese-derived reading attested in the loan 楪子(ちゃつ). It is a late borrowing, regarded as 唐宋音. (ちゃ is not a possible 呉音 or 漢音 reading.) – muhmuhten Nov 26 '19 at 04:02
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    @muhmuhten that's interesting - I currently cannot find a reference or reconstruction which suggests that ちゃ can be derived from a historical reading of 楪. "楪子" is also not a Chinese word, although it might have been derived from the identically pronounced 碟子. But 碟, 楪, and 蝶 are supposed to sound the same or identical, so I don't know where ちゃ comes from. – dROOOze Nov 26 '19 at 10:07
  • Spent a lot of time looking at the entry for 楪 in 大漢和辞典. Beside all the logical readings, the reading チヤ is given as a 慣用音 – a pretty egregious one. There is no definition for that reading at all – but that’s the only reading provided for 楪子. That seems to be a Japanese-only word, as there are no clear Chinese examples, but つ is not a clear reading of 子 as well. The statement in the 大辞泉 that it’s the 唐音 is arbitrary: that could be a 唐音 of something – but not of these two characters. Furthermore, I was not able to find 楪子 as a valid Chinese word. – Alexander Z. Nov 26 '19 at 12:53
  • It’s probably still a Sino-Japanese coining, which for some reason got a 熟字訓 of totally different characters, producing a word that might exist, or not exist, in Chinese. – Alexander Z. Nov 26 '19 at 12:54
  • On closer inspection, it's true that the provenance is unclear. But ちゃつ looks enough like a phonetically plausible late borrowing given the modern reflexes of 碟/楪 that variant or conflation of homophonous 碟子 seems much more likely than well, not being a Chinese-derived reading. つ is an uncommon but well-attested reading of 子 which shows up a lot in mahjong-related borrowings. – muhmuhten Nov 27 '19 at 05:40
  • I wouldn't put too much stock in distinguishing 慣用音 from 唐音 for late (re)borrowings; 茶(ちゃ) itself is customarily marked 慣 more for its emergence not falling into a clear stratum than any actual belief that the reading isn't Chinese-derived. – muhmuhten Nov 27 '19 at 06:06
  • It's kind of interesting ontological question how a reading derived from the Chinese-derived reading *of a homophone* ought to be classified, though. – muhmuhten Nov 27 '19 at 06:14
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    @muhmuhten The initial **ch** part of チヤ is fine. I initially took issue with the final **a** part (as opposed to the **おう** of, say, 蝶), but upon closer inspection of 蝶 in the Minnan and Hakka topolects, this is also believable. Since 唐音 are not systematic, I would regard チャ as an imitation of something that sounded like "**diap**" in a southern Chinese topolect. Thank you for pointing this out! – dROOOze Nov 27 '19 at 07:37
  • Something like a 方言大詞典 would be handy. If there is a word 楪子 in some variety of Chinese close to Japan and the pronunciation is reasonably close, then the question is closed. – Alexander Z. Nov 27 '19 at 07:47
  • I have studied the provenance of 楪 and 碟 in multiple dictionaries and I think I have an idea what happened. Originally, 楪 had the readings jiət ‘window’ and dep ‘bed mat’ (a not-so-subtle specialization of 疊 to me), as well as super-rare sep ‘small wedge’; 碟 meant 鞨, tan skin. Later, 碟 was lost, and when in Yuan dep > tjɛ’ specialized as ‘something layered’ > ‘almost horizontal dish’, 碟 was re-used for that meaning. But when Japan borrowed the word tjɛtsz > ちゃつ some time around that, there was no 碟 in Japan; but the similarity (and, ultimately, correctness) of 楪 was recognized enough. – Alexander Z. Nov 30 '19 at 16:02

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According to a list in this answer, there are 65 joyo-kanji which have a unique on-reading (in the sense of "has a reading not shared by other kanji"). They include 茶. Since even easy joyo-kanji have some nonstandard/rare readings which are not covered by all dictionaries, the number should vary depending on the method. For example, the list says 条 has a unique on-reading デキ, but I don't know when 条 can be read like that. Also note that the list seems a bit old. The list says ボッ is unique to 坊, but it's no longer true since 勃, a kanji recently included in the joyo list, can be read as ボッ, too. 鬱 (ウツ) is now a joyo kanji, and probably has a unique on-reading.

naruto
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  • `The list says 条 has a unique on-reading デキ, but I don't know when 条 can be read like that` This is a [反切]{はんせつ} reconstruction of the character「滌」(徒歷切, i.e. imperfectly reconstructed due to sound shifts [徒]{ト} + [歷]{レキ} = テキ).「条」(or rather, Kyūjitai「條」) was substituted for the character「滌」in the [Rites of Zhou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rites_of_Zhou) - i.e. obscure, and you can safely discard the reading デキ as having almost no practical value. – dROOOze May 26 '18 at 01:43