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Why are words relating to plants, reptiles & insects often written in Kana instead of Kanji? (nord.pub)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/japaneselanguage@sopuli.xyz
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For example, 蠍 is written as サソリ. Even if they use the Kanji in text, they add furigana above it rather than letting the audience themselves decipher the meaning. It's the same with 榊 (サカキ), 仙人掌 (サボテン), 百足 (ムカデ), 蟻 (アリ), 鰐 (ワニ), you get the picture. Why can't they just write them in Kanji without furigana in the same frequency as encountering 本 or 日 upon encountering texts containing these types of words?

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[–] 6 points 2 days ago

I don't know so I'm speculating but

frequency

I'd assume that's the issue. How often do you talk about crocodiles in your everyday life? Now imagine you'd have to decipher the kanji. It's simply more convenient because people can't be expected to remember the kanji for a billion animals.

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