惨变 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

cǎn sad Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 参 represents the sound. Simplified form of 慘.

Components

忄 Meaning component

xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

参 Sound component

cān, shēn take part in

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

biàn change Simplified

Simplified form of 變. Phonosemantic compound. 夂 represents the meaning and 䜌 represents the sound.

Components

䜌 Sound Simplified component

luán tie together

Change in sound

变 and 䜌 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

又 Simplified component

yòu again

Shorthand for the 夂 component in the traditional character 變. 夂 is a component form of 止.

Sources

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

cǎn sad Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 參 represents the sound.

Components

忄 Meaning component

xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

參 Sound component

cān, shēn take part in

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		sʰluːmʔ
Unicode	tsǒm

說文解字

毒也。从心參聲。

Sources

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

biàn change Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 夂 represents the meaning and 䜌 represents the sound.

Components

䜌 Sound component

luán tie together

Change in sound

變 and 䜌 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
變 *pro[n]-s
䜌 *mə.rˤo[n]

攵 Meaning component

pū tap

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjenH	pro[n]-s	change (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“變，更也。从攴，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)

惨 cǎn sad Simplified

Components

Sources

变 biàn change Simplified

Components

Sources

慘 cǎn sad Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

變 biàn change Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

cǎn sad Simplified

biàn change Simplified

cǎn sad Traditional

biàn change Traditional