Edit: Sound component

Title

Body (markdown + directives) A **sound** or **phonetic** component hints at how the character is pronounced. For example: :grid(headers=[Character, "Sound component"]){ :char(simp=妈 trad=媽 pinyin="ma1" gloss="mother" speak=true) :char(simp=马 trad=馬 pinyin="ma3" gloss="horse" mono=sound speak=true) :char(simp=问 trad=問 pinyin="wen4" gloss="to ask" speak=true) :char(simp=门 trad=門 pinyin="men2" gloss="door" mono=sound speak=true) :char(simp=想 trad=想 pinyin="xiang3" gloss="to think" speak=true) :char(simp=相 trad=相 pinyin="xiang1" gloss="mutual" mono=sound speak=true) :char(simp=他 trad=他 pinyin="ta1" gloss="he" speak=true) :char(simp=也 trad=也 pinyin="ye3" gloss="also" mono=sound speak=true) } :swatch(type=sound) Sound components are color-coded as :color(type=sound){blue}. ## Historical sound changes Sometimes a character does not sound similar to its sound component. Most Chinese characters were invented thousands of years ago. Since then, there have been many changes to the way people speak. For that reason, the sound components of some characters are leftovers from old Chinese pronunciation, and do not reflect modern pronunciation. For example, in old Chinese, 他 was pronounced /\*l̥ʰaːl/ and 也 was pronounced /\*laːlʔ/, so 也 was used as a sound component in 他. These two characters no longer sound similar.

Use Markdown for prose. [[slug]] for article links, [[simp|trad]] for character links, [[simp|trad|pinyin]] for sense links. Directives use :name(attr=val){children}.

Edit comment (required)