Reading of 味 as a suffix in "X-flavour" /　as a counter in "X flavours"


This question brought to you by [the existence of
カレー味のラムネ](http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/gourmet/news/business/20130606-OYT8T00390.htm)

In my head, the reading here is あじ。 But I know 七味唐辛子{しちみとうがらし}, so it seems
like as a counter it's み。

I'm almost 100% sure that カレーの味 would be "あじ", but what about カレー味?




七味{しちみ} itself is a morpheme with a Chinese original, thus the `音読み{おんよみ}`
七味{しちみ}. The pronunciation rooted from ancient Chinese. 酸味{さんみ} is a similar
example.

In the contrary, カレーの味 and カレー味 are lexical items clearly not rooted from
Chinese words. `カレー味` contains 2 **free morphemes** `カレー` and `味{あじ}`. So, a
`訓読み{くんよみ}`, 味{あじ}, would be appropriate in this case.

There are many examples provided by this snack:
[うまい棒](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%86%E3%81%BE%E3%81%84%E6%A3%92)

You can see they have listed a lot of flavors there. Most of them are
combinations of a `Western origin word` \+ `味{あじ}`

**Edited** :

For 塩味{しおあじ}, a thing 塩{しお} that actually exists make it quite detachable ,
resulting free morphemes `しお` \+ `あじ`. It is very like the `カレー`+`あじ` in the
original question. However, like `辛味` it is heavily linked together. One thing
you could check is, try adding a の between to see if it makes sense. Like
塩の味{しおのあじ} makes sense, but things like 辛の味{からのあじ} doesn't make sense.

Also, you can see 辛味{からみ} 甘味{あまみ} 苦味{にがみ} are basic tastes the one could
sense. The pure sensory counterpart for salty is 鹹味{かんみ}




七味{しちみ} itself is a morpheme with a Chinese original, thus the `音読み{おんよみ}`
七味{しちみ}. The pronunciation rooted from ancient Chinese. 酸味{さんみ} is a similar
example.

In the contrary, カレーの味 and カレー味 are lexical items clearly not rooted from
Chinese words. `カレー味` contains 2 **free morphemes** `カレー` and `味{あじ}`. So, a
`訓読み{くんよみ}`, 味{あじ}, would be appropriate in this case.

There are many examples provided by this snack:
[うまい棒](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%86%E3%81%BE%E3%81%84%E6%A3%92)

You can see they have listed a lot of flavors there. Most of them are
combinations of a `Western origin word` \+ `味{あじ}`

**Edited** :

For 塩味{しおあじ}, a thing 塩{しお} that actually exists make it quite detachable ,
resulting free morphemes `しお` \+ `あじ`. It is very like the `カレー`+`あじ` in the
original question. However, like `辛味` it is heavily linked together. One thing
you could check is, try adding a の between to see if it makes sense. Like
塩の味{しおのあじ} makes sense, but things like 辛の味{からのあじ} doesn't make sense.

Also, you can see 辛味{からみ} 甘味{あまみ} 苦味{にがみ} are basic tastes the one could
sense. The pure sensory counterpart for salty is 鹹味{かんみ}

