Re: [Lingo] 上手･上手い

[Jim Breen <jimbreen@example.com>]

2009/3/18  <dave@example.com>:
> Jim Breen <jimbreen@example.com> writes:
>> 2009/3/18 steve smith <sjs@example.com>:
>>> Josh Glover wrote:
>>>>For example, some 焼きそば can be
>>>> 上手い (actually, it would usually be written with just the hiragana うまい,
>>>> AFAIK), but the person who prepared it would be
>>>> 焼きそばを作るのが上手だ纔瘢韭絎竢蹠\xC2
松
松 上手 is a horror for the number of irregular "readings": じょうず/うま(い)
>> plus the more regular うわて/かみて.
>>
>> There are quite a number of Japanese words where the pronunciation has
>> nothing to do with the readings of the constituent kanji. What is a
>> bit unusual about 上手 is coexistence of both regular and irregular
>> versions.
>
> I sometimes see うまい spelled 美味い。I'd assume this version
> specifically refers to taste, though the Jdict includes the "skillful"
> definition as well.

うまい is one of those polysemous words that can be written several different
ways. While all the written forms can be used for all the senses, some
tend to be more used for one sense than another.

"words" like these are a pain in lexicography. My workaround in JMdict
is to note "(esp. 上手い,巧い)", etc. in the senses.

Jim

-- 
Jim Breen
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow
Clayton School of Information Technology,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/