胎, 婴, 孩, 儿, and 子
johnb
December 05, 2007, 02:31 AM posted in General DiscussionToday we're going to talk the big question -- where does baby vocabulary come from? These five characters will get you started on the vocabulary you need to go all the way from embryo to adolescent.
First, we'll start at the beginning, with 胎 [tāi], "embryo." In this meaning, the character is often combined with another of the characters in this group, 儿, to form the word 胎儿 [tāi'ér] -- "fetus, embryo." The character has also been sound-loaned to mean "tire," and so its found in the words 轮胎 [lúntāi] -- "tire" -- and 车胎 [chētāi], also "tire." Radical: 肉 (130). Components: 月台. Strokes: 9.
We'll follow the progression on now to 婴 [yīng], meaning "infant." This character is also commonly paired with 儿 in 婴儿 [yīng'ér] -- "baby, infant." Some interesting words containing 婴 include 试管婴儿 [shìguǎn yīng'ér] -- literally, "test-tube baby" -- and 连体婴 [liántǐyīng] -- "Siamese twins." Radical: 女 (38). Components: 贝女. Strokes: 11.
Next up is 孩 [hái], "child." This character is the core of a variety of words that mean child. First and foremost among them is 孩子 [háizi], "child." By adding 男 or 女, you get 男孩儿 [nánháir] and 女孩儿 [nǚháir] -- "boy" and "girl," respectively. My wife likes to call me a 大孩子 [dàháizi], as well -- I'll let you guess what that one means. Radical: 子 (39). Components: 子亥. Strokes: 9.
The next two characters have child-related meanings, but are often found in other roles as well. The first of these is 儿 [ér], which means "child" or "son." In this meaning, it's found in the words 儿女 [ér-nǚ] -- "sons and daughters" -- 儿童 [értóng] -- "children" -- and 儿子 [érzi] -- "son." However, it's also used to represent the retroflex "r" sound that is common in northeastern dialects, and is often found in the role as well. Radical: 儿 (10). Strokes: 2.
Finally, we come to 子 [zǐ], which also means "child," but is now most commonly found at the ends of nouns where it has a neutral tone. Example of these include 屋子 [wūzi] "room," 肚子 [dùzi] "belly," 桌子 [zhuōzi] "table," 村子 [cūnzi] "village," and about a million more. Radical: 子 (39). Components: 了一. Strokes: 3.
rich
December 05, 2007, 07:19 PMInteresting to see 婴 and 孩 together here, as I will be singing a Chinese Christmas song tomorrow, 一件礼物(The Gift), solo, at a Chinese restaurant. Here are the lyrics and the audio music. So 婴孩 is a word itself, and is in the song 2nd verse 2nd line, and yet I want to keep saying 婴儿 or at least 婴孩儿，but I need to say it with out the 儿化 so that 孩 and 来 rhyme...ugh. Anyway, just thought I'd share my current experience with two of these words, my frustration and some Chinese Christmas cheer! :)
johnb
December 06, 2007, 01:07 AMInteresting... I didn't know the word 婴孩. Thanks for that! I had always heard babies called 婴儿 or (my personal favorite) 娃娃 [wáwa]. :)
man2toe
December 06, 2007, 04:04 AM胎, 婴, 孩, 儿, and 子
胎, 嬰, 孩, 兒, and 子
Thanks Rich for the song. The audio isn't working for me though:(
rich
December 06, 2007, 05:38 PMreally Man2Toe? It worked for me when I test it... I just clicked it on a another computer and it worked. Do the lyrics work? Where you connecting from? On the Lyrics page, my link is simply the link there at the bottom for the WMA file.
Yes, it is interesting that 婴孩 is also a word...baby-child, but most likely literarly form of baby. Of course here in that song it was used to say "That baby in the manger came for you" (马曹的婴孩是为你而来 mǎcáo de yīnghái shì wèi nǐ ér lái manger-baby-is-for-you-(grammar particle)-come)
I actually made an English translation of this a few years ago in my Hanzi/Pinyin/English praise songbook found here at www.richmahn.com/songbook, or jump directly to the song clicking here.
rich
December 05, 2007, 06:59 PMWhat about baby chameleon's where do they come from? And why do we never see baby pigeons? (I don't even know why there is that statement we never see baby pigeons...)