phonetic map : 它 ta
goulnik
December 23, 2008 at 06:53 PM posted in General Discussion| ta | ||
| 它 tā it; they; this; that ** 它们 tāmen they (non-human) |
铊 tā thallium |
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| tuo | ||
| 沱 tuó . 滂沱 pāngtuó torrential; streaming (tears) 沱茶 bowl-shaped compressed tea 沱若 tuóruò flowing down (tears) |
佗 tuó . ** 磨佗子 mótuózi an annoying person |
跎 tuó . 蹉跎 cuōtuó to slip and fall; miss a chance 磨跎 mótuó to waste time; idle about |
| 陀 tuó . 陀螺 tuóluó top (toy); gyroscope |
驼 tuó be hunchbacked; camel 骆驼 luòtuo camel; blockhead 驼背 tuóbèi hunchback; humpback |
鸵 tuó ostrich 鸵鸟 tuóniǎo ostrich 鹬鸵 yùtuó kiwi |
| 坨 tuó lump 坨子 tuózi lump; heap |
柁 tuó girder 房柁 fángtuó girder; ridgepole |
砣 tuó stone roller 碾砣 niǎntuó n. roller 砣子 tuózi emery wheel |
| 酡 tuó blush from drinking 酡然 tuórán flushed from drinking |
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| duo | ||
| 舵 duò rudder; helm 舵手 steersman pilot; helmsman 把舵 bǎduò to hold the rudder |
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| she | ||
| * 蛇 shé n. snake; serpent ** |
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| yi | ||
| * 蛇 yí . 蛇蛇 yíyí facile (of words) ; leisurely |
詑 yí (see 讠+也 map) |
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** 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.
changye
December 24, 2008 at 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 "爬虫类" in modern Chinese (and in Korean and Japanese).