江浦县 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

jiāng large river

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

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

工 Sound component

gōng work

Change in sound

江 and 工 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
江 *kˤroŋ
工 *kˤoŋ

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

鸿鴻茳

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kaewng	kˤroŋ	(Yangzi) river

說文解字

《說文》：“江，水。出蜀湔氐徼外崏山，入海。从水，工聲。”

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)

pǔ bank of river

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

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

甫 Sound component

fu begin

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

蒲

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	phuX	pʰˤaʔ	river bank
Zhengzhang		pʰaːʔ
Unicode	pǒ

說文解字

瀕也。从水甫聲。

Sources

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

xiàn county Simplified

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Simplified form of 縣. Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend". The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Components

首 Iconic component

shǒu head

Depicts a severed head.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 首 than it was in ancient scripts.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 木 than it was in ancient scripts.

系 Deleted component

xì, xi, jì system

Depicts a rope. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (1)

悬

Iconic (1)

悬

Sources

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

xiàn county Traditional

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend", now written as 懸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.