even on 常用漢字表{じょうようかんじひょう}, no kanji have an official 送{おく}り仮名{がな}?


Recently, I was talking with a friend regarding the 常用漢字表 as specified
[here](http://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/joho/kijun/naikaku/kanji/joyokanjisakuin/)
I noticed that the 送り仮名 property of kanjis is not specified. She was a little
puzzled, but concluded that the 文部省{もんぶしょう} does not standardize 送り仮名。Is this
true?

This might be similar to the stroke count issue. Only the 教育漢字{きょういくかんじ} have
official stroke counts as explained
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/13442/why-do-some-kanji-
have-multiple-stroke-counts)

Please consider these examples:  
話し、話  
飲み物、飲物

So, for example, in theory could I write "表れる" or "表われる" or "表る"? I think the
convention is "表れる". Even though the conventions are very well-known and
pretty much implicitly standardized, there really is no "correct 送り仮名" for any
kanji, right?




Firstly, the official list of kanji is there to specify kanji themselves and
that doesn't really include all the words where a specific kanji can be used.
That would make it a dictionary which it isn't.

Let me address some issues in more details:

  1. The list from the link you included does include **examples** where you can check okurigana. For example, the entry for 表 includes two verbs: 表す and 表れる which in this case are transitive and intransitive versions of a verb. Those are only examples though and are not meant to show all possible words. To see other words, you should just consult a dictionary.

  2. In case of the verbs and adjectives, proper usage of okurigana is important as two words using the same kanji can have different meanings. Compare:

> 細{こま}かい small, fine  
>  細{ほそ}い thin

You cannot write "small" as × 細{こまか}い as only the presence of okurigana かい or
い lets you read and get the meaning properly.

Similarly, for verbs

> 降{お}りる to get off  
>  降{ふ}る to fall

Again, only the presence of りる or る okurigana gives you proper reading and
meaning.

3.In case of some compound nouns, e.g. 飲み物 / 飲物, difference in spelling
doesn't really change the meaning. I'm not _exactly_ sure if there are any
rules which one is preferred though.

* * *

I would like to address kinyo's comment here as it might be useful for future
readers to have it in the body of the question:

Dictionaries, government lists of kanji, etc. document and standardize the
language but they don't create it. The language develops first and then comes
an effort to catalogue it and make it standard. Japanese has an especially
complicated history as there was a whole body of words (漢語), grammarical
elements and the writing system that came from Chinese which is a language
which works in a very different way. That caused the need to adopt that
borrowed writing system to the native Japanese words (大和言葉) and grammar.

The long evolution of Japanese language and its writing system means that the
system is not always logical, clear and doesn't follow a few straight rules.
There are now 大和言葉 words which can be written just in hiragana (e.g. most
particles), kanji and okurigana (e.g. 降る), just kanji used by meaning (e.g. 犬)
or by 当て字 (e.g. 風呂). All that coexists together and it's the nature of a
living language.

Coming back to your comment about dictionaries: all good dictionaries should
give you okurigana. Just remember that okurigana belongs to a word, not
specifically to a kanji. You use kanji and okurigana together to for a word.
You can learn kanji without okurigana. You cannot learn many 大和言葉 words
without okurigana.




Firstly, the official list of kanji is there to specify kanji themselves and
that doesn't really include all the words where a specific kanji can be used.
That would make it a dictionary which it isn't.

Let me address some issues in more details:

  1. The list from the link you included does include **examples** where you can check okurigana. For example, the entry for 表 includes two verbs: 表す and 表れる which in this case are transitive and intransitive versions of a verb. Those are only examples though and are not meant to show all possible words. To see other words, you should just consult a dictionary.

  2. In case of the verbs and adjectives, proper usage of okurigana is important as two words using the same kanji can have different meanings. Compare:

> 細{こま}かい small, fine  
>  細{ほそ}い thin

You cannot write "small" as × 細{こまか}い as only the presence of okurigana かい or
い lets you read and get the meaning properly.

Similarly, for verbs

> 降{お}りる to get off  
>  降{ふ}る to fall

Again, only the presence of りる or る okurigana gives you proper reading and
meaning.

3.In case of some compound nouns, e.g. 飲み物 / 飲物, difference in spelling
doesn't really change the meaning. I'm not _exactly_ sure if there are any
rules which one is preferred though.

* * *

I would like to address kinyo's comment here as it might be useful for future
readers to have it in the body of the question:

Dictionaries, government lists of kanji, etc. document and standardize the
language but they don't create it. The language develops first and then comes
an effort to catalogue it and make it standard. Japanese has an especially
complicated history as there was a whole body of words (漢語), grammarical
elements and the writing system that came from Chinese which is a language
which works in a very different way. That caused the need to adopt that
borrowed writing system to the native Japanese words (大和言葉) and grammar.

The long evolution of Japanese language and its writing system means that the
system is not always logical, clear and doesn't follow a few straight rules.
There are now 大和言葉 words which can be written just in hiragana (e.g. most
particles), kanji and okurigana (e.g. 降る), just kanji used by meaning (e.g. 犬)
or by 当て字 (e.g. 風呂). All that coexists together and it's the nature of a
living language.

Coming back to your comment about dictionaries: all good dictionaries should
give you okurigana. Just remember that okurigana belongs to a word, not
specifically to a kanji. You use kanji and okurigana together to for a word.
You can learn kanji without okurigana. You cannot learn many 大和言葉 words
without okurigana.

