拉链
lā​liàn

zipper

拉 lā, la pull

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 立 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

立
立 Sound component
lì stand
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

啦

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlop[r]ˤəp break

說文解字

《說文》：“拉，摧也。从手，立聲。”

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)

链 liàn chain Simplified

Metal 钅 that joins 连; 连 also provides the pronunciation

Components

钅
钅 Meaning component
jīn metal
连
连 SoundMeaning component
lián connect, join, link

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

鏈 liàn chain Traditional

Metal 釒 that joins 連; 連 also provides the pronunciation

Components

釒
釒 Meaning component
jīn metal
連
連 SoundMeaning component
lián connect, join, link

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangren
rens
r̥ʰen

說文解字

銅屬。从金連聲。

Sources

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