乌拉特前旗 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

wū crow Simplified

Simplified form of 烏. Pictograph of a crow. Similar to 鳥.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 4 verified)

呜坞钨邬

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

lā, la pull

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 立 represents the sound.

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

立 Sound component

lì stand

Change in sound

拉 and 立 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
拉 lop
立 lip

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1)

啦

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	lop	[r]ˤəp	break

說文解字

《說文》：“拉，摧也。从手，立聲。”

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)

tè special

Original meaning: bull

Phonosemantic compound. 牛 represents the meaning and 寺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bull". The meaning later shifted to "prominent" and "special".

Components

牛 Meaning component

niú cow

寺 Sound component

sì, shì temple

Change in sound

特 and 寺 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
特 *[d]ˤək
寺 *s-[d]əʔ-s

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dok	[d]ˤək	bull

說文解字

《說文》：“特，朴特，牛父也。从牛，寺聲。”

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)

qián in front

Original meaning: cut

Phonosemantic compound. 歬 represents the sound, and 刂 represents the meaning. Based on the original meaning "cut", now written as 剪. The current meaning "in front" is a phonetic loan.