Different conventions for animal meat


After reading [this awesome
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/6625/78), I got to thinking
about different animal meat. Upon researching a little, there seems to be
different conventions in referring to different meats.

### Using 訓読み

> （鳥・鶏）肉 → **とり** にく  
>  豚肉 → **ぶた** にく

### Using 音読み

> 牛肉 → **ぎゅう** にく  
>  羊肉 → **よう** にく  
>  豚肉 → **とん** にく  
>  鶏肉 → **けい** にく

### [Animal] + の + 肉

> 子牛の肉 → こうしのにく (veal)  
>  かにの肉 → crab meat

Why is there not one consistent way of doing this?




There is no convenient rule you can use. The different pronunciations come
from the different origins of the words.

There are basically three kinds of words that are written in kanji in
Japanese.

  * 和語 were developed in Japan, 訓読み words are likely to be 和語
  * 漢語 originated in China, 音読み words are likely to be 漢語
  * There are also combinations of 和語 and 漢語, and those words are called 湯桶読み. 

For more information: <http://www.iwanami.co.jp/moreinfo/0802060/top3.html> .

By the way there are 鹿肉(しかにく), 馬肉(ばにく) also. Personally I never heard of 豚肉 as
とんにく.

