婆姨
pó​yí

wife

婆 pó, po mother-in-law

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
波
波 Sound component
bō waves

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartba[b]ˤa[j] 婆娑 saunter, dance

Sources

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

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)