人 Reading?

[kmkosers]

In one of my Newbie lessons '人' was translated as 'jin', meaning person. After doing some research I found the kunyomi reading is 'hito'. Is this because 人 be read differently depending on context? If so, why isn't 'jin' considered a kunyomi or onyomi reading?

[Belton]

ジン (jin) is an onyomi for 人 (ie was introduced from China at some point)

the perplexing feature of Japanese is that kanji have multiple readings. It depends on the origin of the word as to what reading is used.
essentially you know how to read it because you know what it should be in a spoken sentence. very catch 22.

[kmkosers]

Thank you for clearing that up for me!

[untmdsprt]

You forgot the 3rd reading as にん

as in さんにん、よにん、ごにん

and the 4th reading as ひとり、ふたり


then you have にんき、人気

Don't you just love kanji?

[Belton]

and -と (although uncommon)
夜商人 [よあきんど] (n) night shopkeeper

and which 人気？

人気 [にんき] (n,adj-no,adj-na) popular, popular feeling, business conditions.
人気 [ひとけ] (n) sign of life
人気 [じんき] (n) prevailing mood of a locality, emotional climate of a district

大人気 [おとなげ] (n) adultness, maturity
大人気 [だいにんき] (n,adj-na,adj-no) great popularity, high favour


'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice....

@kmkosers
I probably should have pointed out while there are two classifications (ignoring name readings) a kanji may have only a kun reading (no on) or only an on reading, or can have many on and kun readings.

[untmdsprt]

Belton, let's not scare the people now.

[kmkosers]

Yes I was naive enough to think I could just remember one or two readings and I"d be set. Then I signed up for Remembering the Kanji and discovered I'm in for a lot more than I thought ha ha I think I"m set now though, thanks again for all your help!