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I've been watching a Japanese drama this weekend and was intrigued by the way they use Chinese Characters. They can either pronounce it the original Chinese way (on'yomi/音読み), or they keep the Chinese writing, but read it in native Japanese word (kun'yomi 訓読み). For instance, the female protagonist had the surname “黛”, pronounced "Dai" in Mandarin, meaning a blackened eyebrow. I half-expected the Japanese pronunciation to be somewhat similar (たい/tai), but it turned out the name was pronounced "Mayuzumi", or "Eyebrow-Ink", in native Japanese words.
Middle Persian had a similar phenomenon, whereas they could write the Semitic word "MLK", but pronounce it "shah" (both meant "king").
Ancient Akkad used the Sumer writing writing system in a similar way.
Was it possible for similar phenomenon to occur more often in English? For instance, an English scribe wrote down "rēgīna", but pronounce it as "queen", and conveniently shift between "reˈdʒiː.na" and "kwiːn" depending on circumstances?