伽倻琴
jiā​yē​qín

gayageum

伽 jiā, qié, gā transcription of sanskrit 'gha' in buddhist texts ('samgha'

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 加 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

加
加 Sound component
jiā add

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangɡa
ɡal
Unicodeghia

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

倻 yē phonetic used in Korean place names

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

people

耶
耶 Sound component
yé, yē, ye ye (sound)

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

琴 qín Chinese lute or guitar

The top component is a pictograph of a zither-like stringed musical instrument. 今 is a sound component.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Pictograph of a stringed musical instrument similar to a zither.

今
今 Sound component
jīn now

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartgim[C.ɢ](r)[ə]m lute

說文解字

《說文》：“琴，禁也。神農所作。洞越，練朱五弦，周加二弦。象形。”

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)