I was studying kanji, and this word came up. I know the romaji is nikagetsu, meaning two months, so I was a little confused as to why it has a little "ケ". Do you know if this is correct, and if it is, why it's spelled 二ヶ月 instead of 二か月? Thanks.
1 Answer
it is correct. "kagetsu" is the form for counting months, and may take any of these forms: カ月 ·ケ月 ·ヶ月 ·ヵ月 ·箇月 ·か月 .... as for how ケ became one of the written forms, I don't have enough study under my belt to know for sure, but if I had to guess I would say that it's related to the kanji version 箇月, which has two of those as radicals at the top... perhaps it became a shorthand for that kanji at some point. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can clarify.
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1Yes, 「ケ」is a short hand for 「箇」in this context and is pronounced "ka" accordingly. As ericfromabeno guessed, 「ケ」is one of the top elements of the full kanji. All forms s/he lists are correct and all pronounced the same---At least, this is what I think I read in a book written by a scholar, but I can't find the reference now.– RyoCommented Apr 28, 2018 at 16:57