海豹

海豹

1. earless seal (Classifier: 隻／只 m)

Originally a compound of Old Japanese elements 痣 (aza, “bruise”) +‎ 等 (ra, “lots of”, a pluralizer) +‎ 獣 (shi, “beast”, especially one used for meat). The bruise meaning was in reference to the spotted coat.

The kanji are jukujikun (熟字訓), from Chinese 海豹 (literally “sea leopard”).

• (Irregular reading)
  • (Tokyo) あざ​らし [àzáꜜràshì] (Nakadaka – [2])[1][2][3]
  • IPA^(key): [a̠za̠ɾa̠ɕi]

海豹 (hiragana あざらし, katakana アザラシ, rōmaji azarashi)

1. a seal, specifically the earless seal or true seal

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts, as アザラシ.

Note the distinction between 海豹 (azarashi) for seal, which has no external ear flaps, and 海驢 (ashika) for sea lion, which does have external ear flaps.

/kaipeu/ → /kaifeu/ → /kaiheu/ → /kaihjoː/

From Middle Chinese 海豹 (hʌi^X pˠau^H, literally “sea + leopard”).

• On’yomi: Goon
  • (Tokyo) かいひょー [kàíhyóó] (Heiban – [0])[2][1][3]
  • IPA^(key): [ka̠iço̞ː]

海豹 (hiragana かいひょう, rōmaji kaihyō, historical hiragana かいへう)

1. a seal, specifically the earless seal or true seal

The kaihyō reading appears to be much less common than azarashi above.