phonetic map : 它 ta

goulnik
December 23, 2008, 06:53 PM posted in General Discussion

@ 它

ta
it; they; this; that **
它们 tāmen they (non-human)
thallium
tuo
tuó .
滂沱 pāngtuó torrential; streaming (tears)
沱茶 bowl-shaped compressed tea
沱若 tuóruò flowing down (tears)
tuó . **
磨佗子 mótuózi an annoying person
tuó .
蹉跎 cuōtuó to slip and fall; miss a chance
磨跎 mótuó to waste time; idle about
tuó .
陀螺 tuóluó top (toy); gyroscope
tuó be hunchbacked; camel
骆驼 luòtuo camel; blockhead
驼背 tuóbèi hunchback; humpback
tuó ostrich
鸵鸟 tuóniǎo ostrich
鹬鸵 yùtuó kiwi
tuó lump
坨子 tuózi lump; heap
tuó girder
房柁 fángtuó girder; ridgepole
tuó stone roller
碾砣 niǎntuó n. roller
砣子 tuózi emery wheel
tuó blush from drinking
酡然 tuórán flushed from drinking
duo
duò rudder; helm
舵手 steersman pilot; helmsman
把舵 bǎduò to hold the rudder
she
* shé n. snake; serpent **
yi
* .
蛇蛇 yíyí facile (of words) ; leisurely
(see 讠+也 map)


** 它 was borrowed long ago as a phonetic-loan character for the third-person pronoun 他 'he, she, it'. Sometimes it was written 佗, which became 他. Only in modern times was a distinction made (in writing) between 他 he, 她 she, and 它 it.
** 佗 is a variant of 驼
** The ancient sounds of 蛇 and 它 (now shé and tā) were similar.

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changye
December 24, 2008, 12:19 PM

"它" is the original character (初文) of "蛇" (a snake), in other words, the original meaning (本义) of "它" was "a snake". Ancient people added the part "虫" to "它" to make its meaning clearer.

Incidentally, in ancient Chinese, "虫" indicates "a snake", and "蟲" means "insects", and that is why reptiles are still called "爬类" in modern Chinese (and in Korean and Japanese).