Re: [Lingo] 上手･上手い

[steve smith <sjs@example.com>]

Thanks to all.  As always I learned far more than expected.  And as 
always this is going to take a while to digest.

You guys are the greatest!

To summarize:
1) 上手い usually means 'excellent' where 上手 usually means 'skillful'.
2) The difference in pronunciation is a result of うまい・上手い comes 
from native Japanese (和語) and じょうず・上手 is from the Chinese (漢語).
3) the pronunciation of 上手い is related to the meaning rather than the 
pronunciation of its kanji and there are a number of these.  They're 
called 「義訓」.  「上手」 has more irregular readings than most.  麦 
酒・びる is another example.
4) 焼きそば can both be skillfully made and excellent :)

And also I have a bit more to learn yet about use of the IME.

Did I miss anything?

Steve S.