何在 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

Chinese Character Wiki Wiki

hézài

where

hé what

Original meaning: shoulder a burden

Depiction of a man carrying an axe on over his shoulders. The right side of the form was later phoneticized into 可. The current meaning "what" is a phonetic loan.

Components

亻 Meaning component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

Change in meaning

亻 hints at the original meaning of 何, "shoulder a burden", which is no longer the most common meaning of 何 in modern Mandarin.

可 Sound component

kě able to

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

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

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

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

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ha	[g]ˤaj	what

說文解字

《說文》：“何，儋也。从人，可聲。”

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)

zài be at

Composed of 才 and 士, which both represent the sound.

Components

才 Sound component

cái, cai talent

士 Sound component

shì, shi scholar, soldier

Modern form looks like 土, but is unrelated.

Change in sound

在 and 士 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
在 dzojX
士 dzriX

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

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

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzojX	[dz]ˤəʔ	be at, be present

說文解字

《說文》：“在，存也。从土，才聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.908
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)