私営 vs. 市営

Japanese
#1

So I just learned the 営 kanji in WaniKani and as a follow-up I learned the two vocab words 私営 and 市営, which are both pronounced しえい . Now usually when I find out two words have the exact same pronunciation I figure the context will help make it clear what someone means - I mean it should usually be clear if we’re talking about a 商人 or a 証人, right?

But in this case, I feel like this could be an important distinction that will not be apparent from context alone. It’s literally the difference between “it’s privately run” and “it’s run by the city”… well, which is it?

Is this one of those situations where follow-up questions are unavoidable? Or am I missing something? I’m aware of the pitch accent in Japanese and I even think I can tell the difference, but I don’t think there is one here? How does this play out in “real life”?

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#2

I would say that if you’re going to say 市営, you would almost always put the name of the city before it.
Nobody says that by the way, it’s usually said as 市立 - I’m sure there are nuances there but I don’t know what they are… anyway, the same problem still applies.
EDIT: I just searched the difference between 市営 and 市立.
市営 - something that is owned by the government and operated through income from the business they engage in, e.g. JR Rail.
市立 - something that is run by the government and funded by taxes, e.g. schools.

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#3

I can honestly say that I’ve never heard someone say 市営, but I can say that once you get confident with listening, you won’t struggle with this anywhere near as much as you think you would.

Radio is probably the hardest I think, as you don’t have the added context of gestures and expressions, so if you’re worried about this kind of thing then I’d recommend listening to the radio and talk shows as much as possible. After a while you’ll see that context almost always becomes clear very quickly (as long as people speak clearly… which unfortunately is not the case, as some radio hosts speak like they just went 5 rounds with Rocky and a teetering on the edge of consciousness :sweat_smile:)

#4

I hear and see 市営 all the time especially in transport in Japan, as pointed out. Case in point, 市営地下鉄 or 市営バス.

#5

It’s not so much I’m worried about it, I was just curious how this gets resolved. “A different word is usually used” makes sense to me and even if it does get used in the context of 市営地下鉄 or 市営バス then that also makes sense because I’m not expecting a subway or a city bus to be privately run. That’s what I was looking for, thanks.

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