Character etymology for Elementary - Keys, Wallet, Phone 南

Wow, your posting is much more amusing and interesting than etymology books of mine!

These are great!! Thanks

I especially like the example words section. Its good to find words made up of characters i already know because it expands my vocab without having to learn how to write any new characters

A supplemental to the entry.

You can see an example of “南” in oracle bone scripts (甲骨文) in the following web page (the leftmost character). The second one from the left is a bronze inscription character (西周金文) of “南”, which is also shown by mandarinboy in this entry.

http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE5Zdic8DZdic97.htm

Interestingly enough, one of my etymology books says, based on its shape in 甲骨文, that the original meaning of 南 is a (south-facing?) food warehouse (粮库). Come to think of it, it really looks like a storage. Scholars have a good imagination!

说文解字(100 A.D.) says “南，草木至南方有枝任也” (plants flourish in southern region), but modern scholars don’t seem to agree on this definition, saying the author 许慎 didn’t know 甲骨文, which was discovered at the end of the 19th century.

P/S. I think that “a storage” is hard to deny!

Thanks changye. I have not heard that version before, very interesting. As you write, scholars do have a pretty good imagination:-) I once went to a lecture at beida around the subject of the origin of Chinese characters. Very interesting to se how many different opinions there are on some characters. It is also possible that in some cases there might be several explanations that are all true. It is not always easy to know the exact development of characters. By the way, I really like your explanation, do you mind sharing the title of the book? I use several myself but that one I have clearly missed.

Hi mandarinboy,

I found the “food storage” etymology in “甲骨文字趣释”. This book is very good. You can see a lot of pictures in it, and the Chinese author is humorous. Most importantly, it's very inexpensive!

http://www.amazon.cn/dp/bkbk610347

FYI, the explanation about 南 in the book is as follows; 南的本形是粮仓. Interestingly, the author says like this on other page; 南字在甲骨文中还借用为南方之南，而这无论从音从形还是从义上都叫人搞不懂，是不是南方向阳，可以催芽？或者当时的谷种仓库都健在向阳的南面？还是南与穀古音相近？拿不准，只好存疑。

To tell you the truth, I prefer the ”storage” etymology to the “musical instrument” one, since the shape of 南 in 甲骨文 is somewhat similar to that of “高” (high, tall), of which original meaning is a (tall) house. Both characters have two “legs” at their lower parts. I imagine they might be the pillars of a storage.

(“高”字) http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE9ZdicABZdic98.htm

In ancient times, there was a food warehouse called “高床式仓库” in many countries including Japan. They had long pillars and its floor was placed high off the ground so that rats and humidity couldn’t come into a warehouse. The shape of 南 in 甲骨文 just makes me think of the ancient food storage.

http://gasurfen.nl/index.php?hl=f5&q=uggc%3A%2F%2Fwn.jvxvcrqvn.bet%2Fjvxv%2F%25R9%25NO%2598%25R5%25ON%258N%25R5%25OP%258S%25R5%2580%2589%25R5%25ON%25NO

The character 南 was already used in the sense of “south” in 甲骨文 divinations. So, I wildly guess 南 perhaps originated in an older character than 甲骨文, even if it originally meant a kind of musical instruments. As you said, there are often a few etymologies for one character, which makes things more interesting.

Thanks a lot changye. I like your extended explanations as well. Good points. I have ordered the book you linked to too. I love the price:-) I usually fill my suitcases with books every time I go to China or Japan but this one I have clearly missed. Good point with the gao character. I think that I will make that the next etymology character tonight. I will use that in my classes today. The Chinese community here in Gothenburg, Sweden, holds weekend classes for children and my daughter (4 years) will attend and so will I. When we play around with characters she loves me to tell my stories around the characters. That is why I have found it to be so good to study etymology. All the children tend to learn faster when we look at the characters as pictures that can be painted instead of just strokes. I think that is true even for adults. Yesterday I checked the homepage of ministry of education of China to find out how characters are thought at lower classes and where surprised to learn that etymology is not in the study plan at all. My wife confirmed that when she where in school they did not spend much time at looking at the meaning behind the characters.

Hi mandarinboy,

I’m afraid that the third link in my previous comment doesn’t work. Please click on this one to see 高床式仓库 (a high-floored warehouse).

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E5%BA%8A%E5%BC%8F%E5%80%89%E5%BA%AB

As for etymologies, the situation is the same in Japan. I’ve never learned them at school. We were very busy memorizing Chinese characters mechanically then and had no time to look into etymologies. I think that foreign learners are much more familiar with etymologies of 汉字 than Chinese and Japanese people are. The same goes for the grammars!

P/S. You can never compete with children in learning languages, hehe!

Absolutely true. This summer my wife and daughter spend a month in China. When they left our daughter spoke very little Chinese and when they come back she speaks fluent. That is so unfair ;-)