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There's only one onyomi reading for kanji 学 and its "gaku", where did "gatsu" come from?

Eiríkr Útlendi
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Kanpie
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1 Answers1

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Historically, 学校 was spelled in kana -- and pronounced as something like -- がくかう. Regular sound changes resulted in modern がっこう:

  • In the ～くか～ in the middle, the //u// sound was unstressed, leading to it gradually being omitted.
  • The //au// vowel combination on the end shifted from //au// (like English ow!) to //ɔː// (like English awe) by the early 1600s, as demonstrated by the 1603 Nippo Jisho (Japanese-Portuguese dictionary). This then merged with //oː// (the long "O" sound) between then and the early modern period.
Eiríkr Útlendi
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  • So, is it the same as ateji? – Kanpie Nov 05 '21 at 19:33
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    @Kanpie No. It's not *ateji*. This is a regular and nearly predictable sound change. – A.Ellett Nov 05 '21 at 19:36
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    @Kanpie It seems it's almost a rule that in a two-mora *on*-reading that ends in either き or く followed by another *on*-reading beginning with *k*, there will be gemmation. I believe there are exceptions, but I think the exceptions are fairly rare. – A.Ellett Nov 05 '21 at 19:48
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    @Kanpie, as A.Ellett notes, this is a regular sound change. If you think about it, two //k// sounds in quick succession aren't always easy to clearly pronounce, so this kind of phonological contraction is unsurprising. Separately, _ateji_ refers only to spelling. The word is literally _ate_ (from 当てる【あてる】, "to apply something against something else") + 字【じ】 ("character"): most specifically, when a kanji **character** is **applied** to a spelling solely for its sound value, ignoring its meaning. Things like using 四六四九 to spell よろしく, or using ３９ to spell サンキュー. – Eiríkr Útlendi Nov 05 '21 at 22:24