桑海 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

Sānghǎi

Songhay

sāng mulberry tree

Depicts the leaves of a mulberry tree (木). The leaves from a mulberry tree were the food silkworms would eat.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts the leaves from the mulberry trees. Modern form looks like unrelated 叒.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 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

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 7 verified)

丧嗓搡颡磉喪顙

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sang	[s]ˤaŋ	mulberry tree

說文解字

《說文》：“桑，蠶所食葉木。从叒、木。”

Sources

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

hǎi sea

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 每 represents the sound.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

每 Sound component

měi every

Change in sound

海 and 每 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
海 *m̥ˤəʔ (dialect *m̥ˤ- > x-)
每 *mˤəʔ

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Jin 266-420 AD

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

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Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	xojX	m̥ˤəʔ (dialect *m̥ˤ- > x-)	sea

說文解字

《說文》：“海，天池也，以納百川者。从水，每聲。”

Sources

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