沼狸
zhǎo​lí

meerkat

沼 zhǎo lake

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

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

召
召 Sound component
zhào summon

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyewXtawʔpool
Zhengzhangtjewʔ
Unicodejiɛ̌u

說文解字

池水。从水召聲。

Sources

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

狸 li fox

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 里 represents the sound. Simplified form of 貍.

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

里
里 Sound component
lǐ, li village

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartli[r]ə𧳏狸 *pə.[r]ə kind of wild cat (Jiāngnán pron. ap. Guō Pú, ca. 300 CE)
lip.rəkind of wild cat (pron. west of the Hángǔ pass, ap. Fāngyán)
Zhengzhangrɯ
Unicodeliə

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang