Alternate Character Reading: Difference between revisions
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The subtle nuances that can be achieved with the use of an alternate reading are almost always [[Lost in Translation]]. On the flip side, alternate readings are frequently used when adapting something from English to Japanese in order to retain English names or puns.
A handful of Chinese characters (notably 行) actually possess multiple readings in Chinese itself, but this is rarely drawn on for puns. Interestingly, as Japanese adopted Chinese characters in the 7th century CE, they've preserved the pronounciation of a lot of Chinese as it was spoken back then. For this reason, Japanese is very useful for linguists trying to reconstruct Middle Chinese.
Not to be confused with [[Alternate Character Interpretation]].
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