音{おん}訓{くん} for 肉{にく} and 皿{さら}

Question

As per a "中学{ちゅうがく}漢字{かんじ}ドリル" textbook used by native speaker students in Japan, this is the 音訓 readings specified for "肉" and "皿":

肉
音： ニク
訓：　none given

皿
音：　none given
訓：　さら

Yet, at denshi.org this is the information provided: 肉、皿。

So, I trust my textbook. Native speakers get to decide the specs of their own language. But, I'd still like to double check this. In fact, I don't ever want to use denshi.org again. A native speaker I trust says the site is managed by non-native speakers. I continue to use it only because it gives we quick response times (and out of habit).

(1) what is going on with those readings 肉 and 皿? Which source is wrong?

(2) what is the official character dictionary that native speaker scholars use? A name, and a link, would be very useful to me.

Answer 1

The site you've linked to is an interface to the dictionaries Jim Breen has put together using both his own resources (as I understand it he has a lot of dictionaries, including the Morohashi) and crowd-sourced submissions. It's the same data you'll find at WWWJDIC.

In response to your questions:

1. Neither source is wrong. They've just chosen to include different things. Your book includes only the readings from the official 常用漢字表. But that doesn't mean the other readings are "wrong" or don't exist in some sense. People can and do use readings (and kanji) that aren't on the official chart.

   When I look up those kanji in 新漢語林, I see しし for 肉 and ベイ for 皿 as well as the readings you've listed. But the same dictionary also tells me that しし and ベイ aren't included on the official chart. (It's probably worth noting that ニク and さら are much more common than しし and ベイ.)

2. There are a lot of character dictionaries, but none is "official" as far as I know. The closest you'll get to official would be the lists published by the government for education, such as the 常用漢字表 (linked above), but these aren't descriptive resources that contain all of the possible/historic readings for a character.

You might look for a 漢和辞典 at a bookstore. I have 新漢語林, but I've heard that 漢字源 is a good choice.