Kun Yomi of Chinese origin, like 竹 (take)


I have came across an English book on Ancient Japanese languages. (Sorry I
forgot the book name)

In the book, it says some Kun Yomi of Kanji actually come from early contact
of Chinese languages. Take 竹 as example, it's Kun Yomi is `take` which is very
close to ancient Chinese languages.

Are there more examples to support this?

**Edit**

Another example in book, 金 `kane`, it is very close to ancient Chinese
languages.




Short answer: probably yes, but we don't know a lot about it.

We don't have enough documentation about the earliest stages of Japanese to be
sure, but the consensus is that a bunch of the oldest words must have come
from Chinese and other languages. It would be hard not to, since they were in
contact all the time, and the original Japanese speakers came from the
continent anyway. Linguist Bjarke Frellesvig, in _A History of the Japanese
Language_ , says that

> It is beyond doubt that Old Japanese includes old loanwords from the
> languages around Japan—especially words relating to agriculture, seafaring,
> warfare, spiritual and religious life, government, and administration—but
> that we will not be able to identify many of them as loanwords on other than
> extra- linguistic grounds. It is for example a strong hypothesis that
> Japanese _iraka_ 'roof, roof tile' is a loanword, but we do not know from
> where. In other cases we believe that a word must be borrowed and can come
> up with several likely sources but cannot choose between them. It is, for
> example, very likely that the Japanese word for 'horse', _uma_ , is borrowed
> and there are indeed words in surrounding languages which mean 'horse' and
> which are similar to _uma_ , e.g. Early Middle Chinese * _maɨ'_ , Middle
> Korean _mol_ , Mongolian _morin_.

These older loanwords would already be felt as "Japanese" by the time the
country adopted kanji, and therefore they were classified as "kun-yomi". Other
examples include:

  * 栲 _tae_ "cloth made from mulberry bark", which used to be _tape_ , related to Austronesian _tapa_ (same meaning).
  * 釜 _kama_ "pot", Old Chinese 坩 * _khaam_.
  * 鎌 _kama_ "sickle", Old Chinese * _gryam_.
  * 絹 _kinu_ "silk", Old Chinese * _kwyans_.
  * 国 _kuni_ "country", Old Chinese 郡 * _guns_.
  * 梅 _ume_ "plum", Old Chinese * _hmay_.
  * 銭 _zeni_ "money", Old Chinese * _dzian_.

"Bamboo" in ancient Chinese is thought to have been something like * _truk_ >
_ṭuk_ , so I guess it does resemble _take_. But we can't be totally sure;
some of these may be coincidences, some perhaps even borrowings _from_
Japanese (or Korean or their ancestor, and so on).




Short answer: probably yes, but we don't know a lot about it.

We don't have enough documentation about the earliest stages of Japanese to be
sure, but the consensus is that a bunch of the oldest words must have come
from Chinese and other languages. It would be hard not to, since they were in
contact all the time, and the original Japanese speakers came from the
continent anyway. Linguist Bjarke Frellesvig, in _A History of the Japanese
Language_ , says that

> It is beyond doubt that Old Japanese includes old loanwords from the
> languages around Japan—especially words relating to agriculture, seafaring,
> warfare, spiritual and religious life, government, and administration—but
> that we will not be able to identify many of them as loanwords on other than
> extra- linguistic grounds. It is for example a strong hypothesis that
> Japanese _iraka_ 'roof, roof tile' is a loanword, but we do not know from
> where. In other cases we believe that a word must be borrowed and can come
> up with several likely sources but cannot choose between them. It is, for
> example, very likely that the Japanese word for 'horse', _uma_ , is borrowed
> and there are indeed words in surrounding languages which mean 'horse' and
> which are similar to _uma_ , e.g. Early Middle Chinese * _maɨ'_ , Middle
> Korean _mol_ , Mongolian _morin_.

These older loanwords would already be felt as "Japanese" by the time the
country adopted kanji, and therefore they were classified as "kun-yomi". Other
examples include:

  * 栲 _tae_ "cloth made from mulberry bark", which used to be _tape_ , related to Austronesian _tapa_ (same meaning).
  * 釜 _kama_ "pot", Old Chinese 坩 * _khaam_.
  * 鎌 _kama_ "sickle", Old Chinese * _gryam_.
  * 絹 _kinu_ "silk", Old Chinese * _kwyans_.
  * 国 _kuni_ "country", Old Chinese 郡 * _guns_.
  * 梅 _ume_ "plum", Old Chinese * _hmay_.
  * 銭 _zeni_ "money", Old Chinese * _dzian_.

"Bamboo" in ancient Chinese is thought to have been something like * _truk_ >
_ṭuk_ , so I guess it does resemble _take_. But we can't be totally sure;
some of these may be coincidences, some perhaps even borrowings _from_
Japanese (or Korean or their ancestor, and so on).

