海地 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

Hǎidì

Haiti

hǎi sea

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 每 represents the sound.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

每 Sound component

měi every

Change in sound

海 and 每 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
海 *m̥ˤəʔ (dialect *m̥ˤ- > x-)
每 *mˤəʔ

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Jin 266-420 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	xojX	m̥ˤəʔ (dialect *m̥ˤ- > x-)	sea

說文解字

《說文》：“海，天池也，以納百川者。从水，每聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

de, dì earth

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 也 represents the sound.

Components

土 Meaning component

tǔ earth

也 Sound component

yě also

Change in sound

地 and 也 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
地 *[l]ˤej-s
也 *lAjʔ

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dijH	[l]ˤej-s	earth, ground

說文解字

《說文》：“地，元气初分，輕、清、陽為天；重、濁、陰為地。萬物所陳列也。从土，也聲。墬，籀文地从。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)