琶
pá

guitar-like instrument

Phonosemantic compound. 玨 represents the meaning and 巴 represents the sound.

Components

玨
玨 Meaning component
jué two pieces of jade joined together
巴
巴 Sound component
ba, bā to wish

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangbraː
Unicodebha

說文解字

琵琶也。从珡巴聲。義當用枇杷。

Sources

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