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Words that contain silent Kanji?

Kirigirisu

Konchugakusha
28 Jul 2014
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Hello, I've noticed a couple of words that use kanji which have no phonetic influence on the rest of the word. The kanji are there, they simply are not read! The instances I've found are all life science related and are words normally written in katakana.

Exhibit A;
襟巻蜥蜴 ( えりまきとかげ, erimaki tokage) or frilled lizard. The first two kanji 襟巻 (erimaki) mean "scarf." While the last two kanji both mean lizard. Here's where it gets odd. In this word 蜥 is read as "tokage," while 蜴 is read as absolutely nothing! 蜴 is a kanji with one reading; "eki," however every single word I've seen it used in, it's silent, and has no influence on the other kanji's readings. There are a bunch of other lizard names like this, and in every one of them 蜴 is silent.

For example;
火蜥蜴 (ひとかげ); Salamander
角蜥蜴(つのとかげ); Horny Toad
コモド大蜥蜴(コモドおおとかげ); Komodo Dragon
蜥蜴座(とかげざ); Lacerta the Lizard, which is a constellation.

In every one of these instances 蜥 tokage is combined with 蜴 eki, but is pronounced only as "tokage."

After noticing this weird occurrence, I thought it might just be an anomaly confined to the kanji 蜴 eki, but then I found this...

Exhibit B;
寄居虫 (やどかり, yadokari) meaning hermit crab. In this word, 虫 mushi is present, but doesn't add anything phonetically.

So, I'm perplexed, what do these silent kanji mean? Is it something that occurs normally? Does it mean anything special if a kanji is silent?
 
They seem to have in common that they are (or appear to be) words that were kanji compounds in Chinese but which are Yamato-kotoba....sort of an ateji-like situation going on.

Now, you tell me why 和泉 isn't read わいずみ.
 
It doesn't seem like 蜥 is ever used by itself in Japanese, therefore I would query the source that lists とかげ as a kun-reading (in fact my IME only gives 蜥蜴 as an option for kanji conversion, suggesting that if is used by itself, the usage is fairly rare).

Now, you tell me why 和泉 isn't read わいずみ.

Ooh, I learnt something today!
もともとは「泉」一字であった。「和泉」の国名は和銅6年(713年)の諸国郡郷名著好字令により国名を二字にする必要があり佳字の「和」を付与したものにしたためで、「和」は読まない。

Next, everyone have a go at pronouncing the placenames Gloucester and Loughborough. ;)
 
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