nán south

Original meaning: musical instrument

Depicts a bell-shaped musical instrument. The current meaning of is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

Simplified (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnomnˤ[ə]m south

說文解字

《說文》:“南,艸木至南方有枝任也。从,聲。,古文。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

àn shore, bank

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
yǎn, è tall mountain
Sound component
gàn, gān interfere

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

Remnant (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnganH[ŋ]ˤa[r]-s bank of a river

說文解字

《說文》:“岸,水厓而高者。从屵,干聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica