傀儡 Readings
 

So I'm reading this newspaper article, and I see "傀儡(かいらい)."

I'm curious: is there a difference between くぐつ and かいらい? It's the same kanji, but I'm curious if there's a semantic difference. Thanks!

The article is about Hatoyama, a Japanese politician, who has been accused of being a Kogawa puppet.

asahi.com

There's no semantic difference between the two. It's more of a matter of phonetic aesthetics than anything. There are both on-lovers and kun-lovers in this country as someone as advanced as you may have noticed.

When the word 傀儡 is combined with another compound that is read "on", however, the 傀儡 part is likely to be read "かいらい" as well for the sheer sound balance. 傀儡政権 in the article is the best example of this.

The single exception that I can think of to this phonetic interchangeability is when 傀儡 is used to refer to a female puppeteer who also served as a prostitute. Only the kun-reading "くぐつ" applies there.

I love reading your explanations, they's always perfectly concise!

さすがNagoyankee!:)

Tarto I had a look at your blog and read about the toilet...man I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!!

Just one thing tho...why 前 and 後? You wash even before????

This seems oddly specific. Was it common for female puppeteers to serve as prostitutes at one point?

Aaaaah toilets...such a fascinating world:D

Well in this case, it's not "before" and "after", but "front" and "back" and those buttons allow you to adjust the position of the water jet. Although if you ask me, it's better to leave it to its default position and move yourself, it allows for better precision;)

It's said to have been common. But there weren't that many puppeteers regardless of the genders, so those women didn't constitute a large group in the world's oldest profession by any standards.

So maybe I'll just use this thread as my general "questions Kyle has about an article he's reading" thread.

I'm reading another article, 米国：駐日米大使にルース氏　弁護士、オバマ氏の資金 集め役 - 毎日ｊｐ(毎日新聞).

1. There is the phrase What is the 視 doing there? The phrase means that there is also an uneasy viewpoint, right? Why would be wrong?

2. Also, do you read the prefix 元 in a word like 元国務副長官 (Former Deputy Secretary of State) as もと or げん? I think I'd say もと verbally because I'm not experienced enough to know if げん would leave some sort of ambiguity, being onyomi, but I'm just guessing there.

3. I suppose the same question goes for 前 in 前大統領—まえ or ぜん? It's a prefix (so, thus, semantically separable from the rest of the word), but it's part of a compound, so I can't get a feeling either way for which is proper.

4. Is the difference there between using 前 and 元 that the former is for the immediately preceding person, and the latter is for any other who served before? Like since Bush just left office, you use 前大統領, but for Clinton/Reagan/Nixon you'd use 元大統領 because Bush came after them but before Obama?


Thanks.

It would be wrong as 不安 cannot be a verb. 視 here comes from 視線 meaning view (of others).

It is もと.

It's ぜん.

前（ぜん） is more formal and more restricted than 元（もと）. You can add もと to anything and it would mean former, such as 元彼, ex-boyfriend etc. 前 is only used under restricted circumstances like 大統領 or 社長 etc.

Oh man. Why would you use kunyomi for 元 but onyomi for 前 when both are being used as a prefix that means basically the exact same thing.

もと大統領
ぜん大統領

That's weird!

Thank you, kira.