English Translation
The client is always right.
What’s the proper pronunciation of 依頼人 because I’m seeing three different ones:
いらいにん, いらいひと, or いらいじん? I’m assuming it’s the first one, but I wanted to be sure.
@TisYanni
いらいにん is the only correct pronunciation. The same pattern can be applied to:
- 被告人 (ひこくにん) : defendant (in legal court)
- 調査人 (ちょうさにん) : inspector
- 差出人 (さしだしにん) : sender of packages, letters, email, etc.
- 受取人 (うけとりにん) : addressee of packages, letters, email, etc.
- 穢多・非人 (えた・ひにん) : the lowest social class in the Edo era
I cannot generalize all cases, but ～にん is frequently used for social roles.
～じん is often used in the context of nationality, ethnicity or race but not limited to these demographic terms:
- アメリカ人 (アメリカじん) : Americans
- 白人 (はくじん) : Caucasian
- ユダヤ人 (ユダヤじん) : Jews
- 渡来人 (とらいじん) : Immigrants from China or Korea to Japan around 4-7 centuries
- 巨人 (きょじん) : Giants or Goliath (literally means “super big person”)
- 偉人 (いじん) : Heroes or honorable persons with great achievements
- 教養人 (きょうようじん) : Well-educated persons
巨人, 偉人 and 教養人 are interchangeable with すごく大きい人, 偉い人 and 教養のある人. So ～じん is sometimes used when it is preceded by a (quasi-) adjective.
～ひと (hito) is hardly used as a compound word and ～びと (bito) sounds phonetically more natural. I cannot come up with examples for this pronunciation.