tǎ​jiān

spire

tower

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
earth
Sound component
dā, dá, tà small bean

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtʰuːb
Unicodetɑp

說文解字

《說文新附》:“塔,西域浮屠也。从土,答聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

jiān sharp

Components

Meaning component
xiǎo small
Meaning component
dà, dài big

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔslem

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang