掩埋
yǎn​mái

bury

掩 yǎn to cover (with the hand)

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 奄 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

奄
奄 SoundMeaning component
yǎn, yān to enclose

奄 also represents the meaning.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangqromʔ
Unicodeqyɛ̌m

說文解字

《說文》：“掩，斂也，小上曰掩。从手，奄聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

埋 mái, mán bury

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 里 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
里
里 Sound component
lǐ, li village

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmɛjm.rˤəbury
Zhengzhangmrɯː
Unicodemæi

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica