yán​tān

salt flats

yán salt Simplified

Simplified form of . Phonosemantic compound. represents the sound and represents the meaning.

Components

jiān watch carefully

Shorthand for the sound component in the traditional character .

Simplified component
bo fortune telling

Shorthand for the meaning component in the traditional character .

Sources

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

tān beach, bank, shoal Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified from .

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water
Sound component
nán, nan, nàn difficult

Sources

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

yán salt Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the sound and represents the meaning.

Components

Sound component
jiān watch carefully
Meaning component
salt

salt

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyem[ɢr][o]m salt (n.)
yemH[ɢr][o]m-s salt (v.)

說文解字

《說文》:“鹽,鹹也。从鹵,監聲。古者宿沙初作煮海鹽。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

tān beach, bank, shoal Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water
Sound component
nán, nan, nàn difficult

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthann̥ˤar (E dialect: *n̥ˤ- > MC th-) foreshore

說文解字

《說文》:“,水濡而乾也。从水,聲。《詩》曰:‘其乾矣。’灘,俗从隹。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica