For kanji, that is, Japanese characters, there are two types of readings: kun’yomi and on’yomi. The former is for concrete meanings, the latter gives its pronunciation, which comes from Chinese characters. Kun’yomi expresses Japanese native words, which had not had characters until kanji characters were introduced. Each Japanese word was matched to Chinese characters based on the meanings. Almost all kanji characters have on’yomi, which often resembles Chinese pronunciation.
When we hear kun’yomi, we usually recognize what it means while on’yomi is usually unclear in terms of meanings. In general, kanji read in on’yomi is combined with other characters. We call words created through this process “jukugo,” meaning compounds.
Tai is on’yomi for 36 characters. Among them, 22 have kun’yomi with obvious meanings.
Every rule has some exceptions. The kun’yomi of a certain character is ai. Not only does it sound like on’yomi to me, but also its meaning is ambiguous unless it is combined with other characters or words. On the other hand, we read the same character “sō” in on’yomi. The word“sō” is a phase. It does not have to be combined with other characters. It is unusual with on’yomi.
