phonetic map : 羊 yang

henning

October 13, 2008, 02:09 PM

CSV-list (for the import to Flashcard apps; "@" is delimeter):

不详@bùxiáng@not well known
佯@yáng@to feign; pretend
佯称@yángchēng@to tell lies
入庠@rùxiáng@to pass the first-grade civil service examination
出洋@chūyáng@to go abroad
吉祥@jíxiáng@lucky; auspicious
姜@jiāng@ginger
姜汁@jiāngzhī@ginger juice
庠@xiáng@old term for a school
式样@shìyàng@style; type; model
彷徉@pángyáng@to roam about
恙@yàng@illness
打烊@dǎyàng@to close a stor for the night
无恙@wúyàng@in good health
暖洋洋@nuǎnyāngyāng@warm
样@yàng@shape; form; pattern
样子@yàngzi@appearance; shape
氧@yǎng@oxygen
洋@yáng; yāng@yáng: ocean; vast; foreign; ocean; vast; foreign
洋溢@yángyì@to be permeated with
烊@yáng; yàng@yáng: to melt; smelt; to melt; smelt
烊金@yángjīn@molten metal
牂牂@zāngzāng@thick; dense
痒@yǎng@to itch; tickle
瘙痒@sàoyǎng@pruritus; itch
祥@xiáng@auspicious
祥瑞@xiángruì@n. propitious omen
羊@yáng@n. sheep
羊羔@yánggāo@lamb
翔@xiáng@to soar
臭氧@chòuyǎng@ozone
详@xiáng@detailed; clear
详解@xiángjiě@to. explain in detail
飞翔@fēixiáng@to circle in the air
黄姜@huángjiāng@turmeric

kimiik

October 13, 2008, 02:23 PM

羊羔 Vs 羔羊

羊羔 is a lamb (animal)

羔羊 is a lamb (animal) or a lamb in a spychological way

See the clever tranlation of the silent of the lambs in chinese :

沉默的羔羊

Btw: You can either 放羊羔 or 放羔羊 but 放羔羊 can also be used for people.

goulnik

October 13, 2008, 07:43 PM

thanks kimiik, it's also worth noting that 羔 (gāo) has 羊 (yáng) as radical and 灬 [火] (huǒ) as other component - not sure it has a phonetic function in this case, it may be "a 羊 sheep of an age when it is particularly fit for 火 roasting" as indicated by Karlgren (according to Wenlin/ABC).

kimiik

October 13, 2008, 11:18 PM

Goulniky,

The meat of young animal (lamb) is tasty and tender compared to the meat of older animals (sheep).

Chinese is a famous gourmet culture which emphasizes here the best way to cook lamb (roasting).

changye

October 14, 2008, 07:02 AM

Hi guys,

There are several characters that have the radical “羊” but doesn’t have a  sound similar to “yang”, for example, 羍 (da2), 羭 (yu2), 羠 (yi2), 羖 (gu3) and so on. Their phonetic radicals are 大, 俞, 夷, but not “羊”. The “羊” is a semantic radical only to denote “sheep” in them. You can find more than twenty such characters in 说文解字.

These characters have one common feature, i.e. they all means something directly related to sheep, for instance “sheep born in May”, “ride sheep”, “sheep with a yellow belly” etc. On the other hand, characters which have an abstract meaning, such as 洋 (yang2), 详 (xiang2), 祥 (xiang2), tend to employ “羊” as a phonetic radical.

As for “羔” (gao1), of course, it belongs to the group of characters that have sheep-related meanings. I imagine that the sound “gao” existed first, and later the character “羔” was invented by combining two semantic radicals “羊” and “火”, but not by borrowing the sound “yang” of “羊”. As you said, roasted lamb is very tasty!

“羔” is used as a phonetic radical in “糕” (gao1, rice cake). In this case, there are two possibilities. One is that the sound “gao”, which meant “rice cake”, existed first and later “糕” was created as a 形声字 combining the semantic part “米” (rice) and the phonetic part “羔”. Another is that both the sound and character made at the same time.

Anyway, it seems to me that daily-use words such as 日，月，火，羊，马, which are early-formed characters, had their sounds first and later their characters were invented, while the sound and shape of “sophisticated characters” that had abstract meanings were often artificially invented simultaneously as a 形声字 in middle and late stage, perhaps.