姨妈
yí​mā

aunt

姨 yí mother/wife's sister

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 夷 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
夷
夷 Sound component
yí ancient barbarian tribes

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhanglil
Unicodei

說文解字

《說文》：“姨，妻之女弟同出為姨。从女，夷聲。”

Sources

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

妈 mā, ma mother Simplified

Simplified form of 媽. Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 马 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
马
马 Sound component
mǎ horse

Sources

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

媽 mā, ma mother Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 馬 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
馬
馬 Sound component
mǎ horse

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmaːʔ

Sources

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