History of 馬 and 梅


I learned recently that two mora Sino-Japanese words using one character
always end in /ki/, /ku/, /i/, /u/, /chi/, /tsu/, or /n/. However, I was also
told that 馬【うま】 and 梅【うめ】 are Sino-Japanese. What explains this difference
from the trend? They are older words, but I also realized that, 馬 for
instance, only has one mora in Chinese. (Although 梅 has two...) Did they just
change over time?




As Snailboat mentioned in her comment, [gogen-allguide.com](http://gogen-
allguide.com/u/uma.html) has a good explanation for said etymologies.

Although, I should caution against analyzing Chinese moraically; Chinese is a
syllabic language.

While 馬{うま} and 梅{うめ} are etymologically borrowings from Chinese, they predate
any of the three major 音読み classifications (ie, 呉音、漢音、唐音), and are thus
functionally nativized as indigenous Japanese lexemes.

The understanding is, at the time, Japanese had used a nasalized variant of
/u/ (ie, /ũ/), which for /ũma/ and /ũme/ surfaced as [mma] and [mme]. Over
time, this nasalization was lost, and thus, only the vowel quality /u/
surfaced, resulting in our modern /uma/ and /ume/.

(By the by, this nasalized /ũ/ also accounts for Chinese coda /ŋ/ ("ng")
resulting in 音読み /u/, such as:

> 【京】 /*kjiaŋ/ → /ki.ya.ũ/ → /kyou/




As Snailboat mentioned in her comment, [gogen-allguide.com](http://gogen-
allguide.com/u/uma.html) has a good explanation for said etymologies.

Although, I should caution against analyzing Chinese moraically; Chinese is a
syllabic language.

While 馬{うま} and 梅{うめ} are etymologically borrowings from Chinese, they predate
any of the three major 音読み classifications (ie, 呉音、漢音、唐音), and are thus
functionally nativized as indigenous Japanese lexemes.

The understanding is, at the time, Japanese had used a nasalized variant of
/u/ (ie, /ũ/), which for /ũma/ and /ũme/ surfaced as [mma] and [mme]. Over
time, this nasalization was lost, and thus, only the vowel quality /u/
surfaced, resulting in our modern /uma/ and /ume/.

(By the by, this nasalized /ũ/ also accounts for Chinese coda /ŋ/ ("ng")
resulting in 音読み /u/, such as:

> 【京】 /*kjiaŋ/ → /ki.ya.ũ/ → /kyou/

