phonetic map : 未 wei
goulnik
December 03, 2008, 11:42 AM posted in General Discussion
| wei | ||
| 未 wèi have not yet / 8th Earthly Branch 未来 wèilái future 并未 bìngwèi not yet |
味 wèi taste; flavor; smell; delicacy; delight 味精 wèijīng n. monosodium glutamate 味道 wèidao taste; flavor; interest; smell 美味 měiwèi delicacy / delicious 趣味 qùwèi fun; interest; delight |
|
| mei | ||
| 妹 mèi younger sister 妹妹 mèimei younger sister 姐妹 jiěmèi sisters |
昧 mèi to conceal / confused; obscure 愚昧 yúmèi ignorant; fatuous 深昧 shēnmèi dark; obscure; gloomy 昏昧 hūnmèi stupid |
寐 mèi sleep 入寐 rùmèi to fall asleep 梦寐 mèngmèi dream; sleep |
| 沬 mèi . 沬血 mèixiě bleeding face |
魅 mèi demon; attractive 魅力 mèilì glamor; charm 魑魅 chīmèi evil spirit |
|
changye
December 03, 2008, 12:24 PMAll the character in the table had the consonant "m" in ancient times. In this sense, 妹 (mei) represents more authentic sound than 未 (wei) does. The same goes for "美" (mei) and "微" (wei). The change from "m" to "w" is not uncommon in the history of Chinese pronunciations.
goulnik
December 03, 2008, 12:45 PMthanks Changye, that's helpful for people to accept that those components are truly phonetic, the apparent inconsistencies and resulting confusion being largely due to regional influences and changing habits.
the same can be seen in Western languages where some word spellings are basically archeological stratii.
goulnik
December 03, 2008, 08:12 AM未 (wèi) should not to be confused with 末 (mò), see next map...