Can 数々 be read as【しばしば】?

Question

Can 数々 be either 【かずかず】or 【しばしば】?

The websites j-talk.com and jisho.org both analyze the reading of the following sentence similarly:

パンデミック発生後【はっせいご】、ニューヨーク市内【しない】でもアジア人【じん】に対【たい】するヘイトクライムが数々【かずかず】報告【ほうこく】されてきた

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, there have been numerous reports of hate crimes against Asians in New York City. (translation by deepl.com)

However, the following reading is also listed in jisho.org and Jim Breen's wwwjdic:

数々【しばしば】often; again and again; frequently; repeatedly

However, there is only the 【かずかず】reading here:

Can 数々 be read as 【しばしば】?

I have no personal knowledge but according to this dictionary one is a noun and the other is an adverb (you may need to scroll down a bit); https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%95%B0%E3%80%85 — user3856370, Oct 30 '21 at 12:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 31 '21 at 07:03

1

Short answer is yes, you can compare several dictionaries here.

For example, 精選版　日本国語大辞典 has

しば‐しば【屡・屡屡・数・数数】

〔副〕（副詞「しば（屡）」を重ねたもの）たびたび。しきりに。幾度も。何回となく。

So apparently even 数 alone can be used for しばしば.

I think using 数々 for しばしば is rather rare, most of the time hiragana is used. I have seen 屡/屡々 in older novels, but never 数々.

answered Oct 31 '21 at 07:03

sundowner

Thank you! I am self-taught and don't have a native speaker around to consult, so I am grateful for being able to profit from other stack exchange participants' experience with the language! – Ned Reif Nov 01 '21 at 08:21

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