Why is the 会 in 会计 pronounced kuài?

Question

The character 会 has two different pronunciations; usually it is huì but in 会计 it is pronounced kuài. It seems that the latter pronunciation is exclusively used in the "accounting" meaning.

How did this one character take on two different pronunciations and meanings? Was it a merger of two different characters?

Answer 1

In Old Chinese, it is generally thought that some words followed regular morphological alternations (which are preserved in a few places in MSM, but "frozen", i.e., no longer productive). For instance:

Verb/Noun

处 chu3 "to dwell" / chu4 "a place"

数 shu3 "to count" / shu4 "a number"

知 zhi1 "to know" / (also 智) zhi4 "knowledge"

Similarly:

Active/Inactive Verb

好 hao4 "to like" / hao3 "to be good"

系 ji4 "to tie" / xi4 "to be connected"

会 kuai4 "to bring together" / hui4 "to come together"

Phonetic reconstructions for these alternations generally follow a regular pattern (e.g., voiced/voiceless, 去声/other tone), although specific reconstructions differ.

会 is a somewhat odd example, in that the hui4 reading has displaced the kuai4 reading in almost all places except proper nouns and 会计 = accounting. Branner gives the example from Confucius:

君子以文会友，以友辅仁

The customary reading of 会 in this passage is hui4, but etymologically, it really should be kuai4.

My references are taken from Branner's excellent essay, "On Early Chinese Morphology and its Intellectual History"

EDIT:

The Middle Chinese readings corresponding to "hui4" and "kuai4" are "hwajH" and "kwajH" in Baxter's notation; the initials being 匣 and 見. Based on this, one would expect the MSM pronunciation of the latter to be "gui4" rather than "kuai4". The common Japanese On reading of かい "kai" (attested earlier as くわい "kwai") is actually a kan-on reading. According to wikipedia, the k- initial in a kan-on reading could correspond to either a 匣 or a 見 MC initial. In any event, the "kai" reading is used in both the 'meeting' and 'accounting' meanings, regardless of which MC reading it corresponds to. Some speculate (e.g., Victor Mair, p31) that the MSM "kuai4" may have been influenced by the Japanese "kai" (i.e., that the etymologically expected "gui4" was displaced by "kuai4" when 会计 was re-borrowed from Japanese to mean "accounting"). It is not the case, however, that the hui4/kuai4 distinction is an artifact of Japanese borrowing--a meaning of "settling accounts" is attested dating back well before the Japanese neologism for accounting (see halfway down random blogpost quoting from dictionary).

Answer 2

It's been said that the word 会计 was invented by 大禹 near a place call 会稽山. Both 会 here are pronounce kuai4. 会计 mainly follow the pronunciation of 会稽山 here.

There are many reasons for why one character have two or more different pronunciations, see here if you want to know more reasons.

In this case, it's mainly because people want to use a different pronunciation to show 会稽山 is a special place. It often happen in Chinese.

Reference

Answer 3

There are only two meanings of kuài:

1. To count

2. A family name

All other meanings should be pronounced as hùi.

For more information about the Heteronym in Chinese, you may read

http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/多音字

Answer 4

會 has an entry in 康熙字典 (Kangxi Dictionary):

〔古文〕𣌭㞧𠃐㣛𣥈《唐韻》《集韻》𠀤黃外切，音繪。合也。《易·乾卦》亨者，嘉之會也。《疏》使物嘉美之會聚。《書·禹貢》灉沮會同。《疏》謂二水會合而同。

又《洪範》會其有極。《疏》會，謂集會。《禮·樂記》竹聲濫，濫以立會，會以聚衆。

又《周禮·天官·大宰》大朝覲會同。

又《春官·大宗伯》時見曰會。

又《禮·檀弓》周人作會，而民始疑。《註》會，謂盟也。《左傳·昭三年》有事而會，不協而盟。

又《左傳·宣七年》凡師出與謀曰及，不與謀曰會。

又《集韻》《韻會》𠀤古外切，音儈。與繪通。《書·益稷》日月星辰，山龍華蟲作會。《傳》會，五采也。《釋文》馬、鄭作繪。

又《詩·衞風》會弁如星。《箋》會，謂弁中之縫也。《釋文》會，《說文》作䯤。《周禮·夏官·弁師》王之皮弁會五采。《註》會，作䯤。鄭司農云：謂以五采束髮也。士喪禮曰：檜用組，乃笄。檜，讀與䯤同，書之異耳。

又《周禮·天官·小宰》聽出入以要會。《註》謂計最之簿書，月計曰要，歲計曰會。

又《天官·司會註》會，大計也。

又《周禮·夏官·職方氏》東南曰揚州，其山鎭曰會稽。《註》會稽，在山隂。

又姓。《姓氏急就篇》漢武陽令會栩。

又《集韻》古活切，音括。會撮項椎也。

又《集韻》戸栝切，音活。《莊子·人閒世》會撮指天。向秀讀。

又《韻補》今聲濁，叶泰。古聲淸，叶祭。《卻正·釋譏》三方鼎峙，九有未乂。聖賢拯救之秋，列士樹功之會。

The bold text are 5 definitions of 會 that is pronounced as kuài (or ㄎㄨㄞˋ).

According to the 1st of the 5 definitions, 會 with this pronunciation is used equivalently with 䯤 (something like a hairpin), which is pronounced as kuài. This might be from the definition of 會 being the sewings in an ancient Chinese hat (弁) used to constraint hair. Of course, these 2 characters and their meanings could have had their influences on each other.

The 2nd and 3rd of the 5 definitions relate to the definition of accountant. I don't quite see its connection with the hairpin definition, but the usage of this word to represent accounting possibly comes from 會's meaning of gathering together, while its pronunciation succeeded the one for another meaning.

For the name of the mountain and a last name, they might had only a verbal pronunciation kuài beforehand and needed a character, and therefore 會 is used.

So in conclusion, the pronunciation of 會 as kuài might comes from its equivalance with 䯤 (because they look alike), and other meanings with this pronunciation exist only because 會 already has a pronunciation of such, and therefore, derived meanings of 會 takes the sound of kuài (such as accounting), as well as sound of kuài takes the character of 會 (such as 會稽山, the mountain).

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(answer based on only Kangxi Dictionary and personal deduction)