Is there any etymological relationship between the -さん suffix in 富士山 or 月山 and the -さん suffix you put at the end of a person's name? Or are they unrelated?
asked May 7, 2013 at 11:50
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1 Answer
Totally unrelated.
山 さん [mountain] is a Chinese word "shān" assimilated in Japanese.
さん as a honorific suffix is an old さま undergone some phonetical change.
There are many homophones in Japanese besides that.
