"kaz hagiwara" <kazhagiwara@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message 
news:3qhbt8FevivqU1@individual.net...
> Paul Blay wrote:
>
>> Is "ton" a Japanese _word_ though?  My vote would be for 'no'.
>
> No, it's a Japanese word to express a unit of weight;-)
>
> Anyhow, I have never heared indipendent character 豚 is read as とん. と
> ん seems to be always used with attached character(s) such as 豚汁（とん
> じる）, 豚骨（とんこつ）, or 豚カツ（とんかつ）. I bet your Japanese
> friend will never say 「おい、とん食いにいこうぜ」... Hey, it's not a
> bad phrase indeed.

I'm sorry but I'm not enough of a linguist to know how to say that; perhaps 
Bart Mathias can help us. Certainly "ton" is a 
"something-like-a-word-which-doesn't-appear-on-its-own" in Japanese used to 
mean "pork". In the context of an article on "gyudon", I'd suggest "word" is 
close enough.