海豚 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

hǎitún

dolphin

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

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

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (1)

嗨

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)

tún, dūn, dùn small pig

Original meaning: fat pig

Depicts the meat (⺼) from a fat pig (豕).

Components

⺼ Iconic component

ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

豕 Iconic component

shǐ pig

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dwonX	lˤu[n]ʔ	drag feet; withdraw
	dwon	lˤu[n]	young pig

說文解字

《說文》：“，小豕也。从彖省，象形。从又持肉，以給祠祀。豚，篆文从肉、豕。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫陳劍《“隺”“彖”兩字合證補説》
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

海 hǎi sea

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

豚 tún, dūn, dùn small pig

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

hǎi sea

tún, dūn, dùn small pig