Where does the irregular reading of 迷子 come from?


迷子 is read as まいご, despite the on-reading of 迷 being めい (for example in
迷惑（めいわく） ).

Why is that the case?

I would assume that this is not a case of jukujikun.

What I do find interesting is that the kun-reading of 迷 is まよ (as in 迷う),
starting with ま, so perhaps まい is a combination of めい and まよ? Though I have
never seen that before.

Or maybe it comes from the い-stem 迷う 迷い? Though that would require both
dropping the よ and irregularly attributing the い to the kanji 迷, which seems
odd to me.




If you look 迷子 up in a monolingual dictionary, such as 大辞林 or 大辞泉 for example,
it should include a note like まよいごの音変化 (sound change from mayoigo). So yes, it
was originally まよいご and changed over time.




If you look 迷子 up in a monolingual dictionary, such as 大辞林 or 大辞泉 for example,
it should include a note like まよいごの音変化 (sound change from mayoigo). So yes, it
was originally まよいご and changed over time.

