板岩
bǎn​yán

slate

板 bǎn plank

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 反 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
反
反 Sound component
fǎn reverse

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpaenXC.pˤranʔ plank, board
paenXpˤranʔ perverse

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

岩 yán cliff

The rocks 石 that make up a mountain 山

Components

山
山 Meaning component
shān mountain
石
石 Meaning component
shí stone

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngæm[ŋ]ˤr[a]m (< uvular?)rocky, lofty
Zhengzhangŋraːm
Unicodengam

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang