行き kana incorrect?

Bunpro
#1

The 行き vocabulary point is saying that the kana for it is いき, but all of the voiced sentences say yuki instead. I learned it as yuki on Wanikani as “train direction” or “direction of travel”, is the kana here just wrong or are both ways acceptable?

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#2

Both are OK.

Historically 行く as a verb could be read as ゆく, but nowadays いく is the standard.

ゆく is for songs and train destinations

Is quite a nice stackoverflow comment here pronunciation - When is 行く pronounced as いく, and when is it ゆく? - Japanese Language Stack Exchange

For 行き itself, I think both are used. Possibly when the announcers are using it, they use the slightly more literary/fancy ゆき more often.

But it seems both are in use, even within that context

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#3

Perhaps you forgot the rest of the Reading in WK which states:

Reading

ゆき * KYOKO (TOKYO ACCENT, FEMALE) * KENICHI (TOKYO ACCENT, MALE)

いき * KYOKO (TOKYO ACCENT, FEMALE) * KENICHI (TOKYO ACCENT, MALE)

Explanation

The reading is also an exception. It can be いき, but instead we’re focusing on the ゆき reading…

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#4

Hi @mbern28, welcome to the forum!

There seems to be a mistake in the audio pronunciation of this vocabulary 行き. In order to match the written sentences, it should be pronounced as いき here. We’ll fix this as soon as possible!

About the readings, as mentioned by @samburv , both ゆく and いく are actually acceptable. Even for ‘train direction’ like 東京行きの電車 “A train to Tokyo”, 行 can read as ゆ and い in everyday speech. Both readings have been used since the Heian period, but いく was set as a ‘standard’ reading by the Meiji government and seems to have become the more common reading over time. In general, ゆく is considered more literary, while いく is more colloquial.

Exceptions:

  • Literary expressions and specific idioms like 過ぎ行く (すぎゆく) “to pass, to go by” and 行きずり (ゆきずり) “passing, casual” primarily use the reading ゆく.
  • The te-form and ta-form conjugation of 行く, 行って/た is always pronounced as いって/た. ゆって/た would be recognized as 言って/た instead of 行って/た.

Hope this answers your question. Have a nice day!

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