<p>Of course it's not an error.</p>

<p>Any respectable dictionary will have</p>

<p>石   shi2 </p>

<p>and</p>

<p>石   dan4</p>

<p><em>Variant readings</em> refer to when one character has more than one pronunciation - based, usually, on different meanings.</p>

<p>Taking 石 for instance: when we're talking about rocks and stones - it is pronounced shi2; when we're talking about a specific measurement unit it is pronounced dan4.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-13T15:19:01.190Z
Cool.  I knew of several that had _similar_ pronunciations, likely from linguistic evolution.  This is the first one I've seen where the pronunciations do not seem "related."
伟思礼
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-17T01:02:26.847Z
石 dan4 is not used now, it is an ancient measurement unit. now we use metric units.
Daniel Yang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-04T12:05:09.650Z
Yes, it seems to be interesting that 1 石 is 100升 (for volume), and 1 擔 is 100斤 (for mass), so perhaps that pronunciation for 石 as a unit of volume was borrowed from its counterpart 擔 in mass. That's what Wiktionary suggests.
Michaelyus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-13T14:40:26.887Z
2017-08-13T14:40:26.887Z
Mou某
<p>From CEDict:</p>

<pre><code>MBP-WWG:~ Admin$ egrep "\t石\t" /Users/Admin/Downloads/cedict_1_0_ts_utf-8_mdbg.txt 
石   石   Shi2    surname Shi
石   石   dan4    dry measure for grain equal to ten dou 斗&lt;br/&gt;ten pecks&lt;br/&gt;one hundred liters
石   石   shi2    rock&lt;br/&gt;stone&lt;br/&gt;stone inscription&lt;br/&gt;one of the eight ancient musical instruments 八音[ba1 yin1]
</code></pre>

<p>Is the second one an error?</p>

<p>Is this what is meant by "variant readings" in  <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/16178/how-many-chinese-characters-have-multiple-readings-pronunciations-in-mandarin">How many Chinese characters have multiple readings/pronunciations in Mandarin?</a> ?</p>

<meaning><pronunciation>
Does 石 have two dissimilar pronunciations?
# Does 石 have two dissimilar pronunciations?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-08-13)

From CEDict:

```
MBP-WWG:~ Admin$ egrep "\t石\t" /Users/Admin/Downloads/cedict_1_0_ts_utf-8_mdbg.txt 
石   石   Shi2    surname Shi
石   石   dan4    dry measure for grain equal to ten dou 斗<br/>ten pecks<br/>one hundred liters
石   石   shi2    rock<br/>stone<br/>stone inscription<br/>one of the eight ancient musical instruments 八音[ba1 yin1]

```

Is the second one an error?

Is this what is meant by "variant readings" in [How many Chinese characters have multiple readings/pronunciations in Mandarin?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/16178/how-many-chinese-characters-have-multiple-readings-pronunciations-in-mandarin) ?

**Tags:** meaning, pronunciation


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-08-13. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Of course it's not an error.

Any respectable dictionary will have

石 shi2

and

石 dan4

*Variant readings* refer to when one character has more than one pronunciation - based, usually, on different meanings.

Taking 石 for instance: when we're talking about rocks and stones - it is pronounced shi2; when we're talking about a specific measurement unit it is pronounced dan4.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Cool.  I knew of several that had _similar_ pronunciations, likely from linguistic evolution.  This is the first one I've seen where the pronunciations do not seem "related."  
> **username_2**: 石 dan4 is not used now, it is an ancient measurement unit. now we use metric units.  
> **username_3**: Yes, it seems to be interesting that 1 石 is 100升 (for volume), and 1 擔 is 100斤 (for mass), so perhaps that pronunciation for 石 as a unit of volume was borrowed from its counterpart 擔 in mass. That's what Wiktionary suggests.  

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