他国 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

tā he

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 也 represents the sound.

Components

亻 Meaning component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

也 Sound component

yě also

Change in sound

他 and 也 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
他 *l̥ˤaj (E dialect: *l̥ˤ- > MC th-)
也 *lAjʔ

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tha	l̥ˤaj (E dialect: *l̥ˤ- > MC th-)	another

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica

guó nation Simplified

Simplified form of 國. Phonosemantic compound. 囗 represents the meaning and 或 represents the sound.

Components

囗 Meaning component

wéi, guó surround

玉 Sound Simplified component

yù jade

Shorthand for the 或 component in the traditional character 國.

Change in sound

国 and 玉 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
国 *[C.q]ʷˤək
玉 *[ŋ](r)ok (< uvular?)