はうって / 妻 / 首 / いや

[eeky]

Hi,


1. 今日は昨日の寒さとはうって変わった陽気だ。

Translation given: "It isn't anything like as cold as it was yesterday."

What is とはうって?


2. When 妻 is used by itself to mean "wife", it's usually pronounced つま, right? However, I see it can also be read as さい. When would it be read that way?


3. When 首 is used by itself to mean a person's head, how is it usually read? Are there any rules to determine which of seemingly dozens of readings are used in which situation?

 

[Morphling]

はうって / 妻 / 首 / いや

1. It's suppose to be 打って変わる. It means complete change from a previous state. The funny use of hiragana is very confusing I must say.

2. Not too sure. The only time I've seen is when it's a compound word like 妻子、愛妻 etc.

3. To mean the head of something, it should be pronounced かしら. 音読み also has that meaning. シュ. You can reduce the confusion of kunyomi readings by looking at other characters that share the same kunyomi. くび 頚 this can only mean neck. かしら 頭 this can mean the head of an organization. This would only really help if you have strong kanji knowledge.

If you mean あたま, the only other reading would be こうべ but that's getting poetic.

 

[undrentide]

3. 首 on its own is read くび and it could mean either neck or head, depending on the context.
e.g. 首（くび）を傾げる = **** one's head.
Reading does not determin its meaning in this case, just from the context you can see whether it is just referring to the neck, or head (usually the part of the body starting from the neck and above it.)

edit: My! I used a verb which means "to incline" and the system regarded it as an obscene word, and replace it with ****!

 

[Toritoribe]

2)
さい is not used nowadays. I've read it in 夏目漱石's novels, but I don't know how frequently it was actually used at that time (in Meiji or Taishō period). The only exception would be the one used as a pun for サイ "rhinoceros" in these days. The following is the beginning of a well-known 漫才 (comic dialogue).

うちの妻（さい）がね。。。
なんや、君んとこサイ飼うてんのかいな。
My "sai" ...
Wait, you have a rhino in your house!?

3)
I don't think 首 refers to a person's head when it's read かしら. As in the dictionary I quoted below, it's a special use for a doll's head, especially a doll in 人形浄瑠璃 or 文楽.

かしら【頭】
５ （「首」とも書く）人形の首から上の部分。特に、人形浄瑠璃の人形の頭部。「―を遣う」

かしら【頭】の意味 - 国語辞書 - goo辞書

 

[eeky]

Thanks all, actually, now I look again, many of the numerous readings I noticed under the heading 首 are actually only for 頭, so let me ask the same question about 頭.

I know あたま for a person's head and かしら for head of an organisation. When 頭 is used as a character by itself, are there any other common readings (ignoring rare or old-fashioned or poetic cases) that I should care about?

 

[Morphling]

はうって / 妻 / 首 / いや

The only other reading I can think of is こうべ。
From 李白's famous poem:
挙頭望山月 コウベを挙げて山月を望み
低頭思故郷 コウベを低れて故郷を思ふ

I think all this boils down to is the fact there are more ways in Japanese to say the word head than there are characters in Chinese hence kunyomi goes a bit crazy.