歌厅
gē​tīng

karaoke hall

歌 gē, ge song

Originally depicted a person carrying an axe while singing. Now a phonosemantic compound. 欠 (pictograph of a person opening their mouth) represents the meaning and 哥 represents the sound.

Components

哥
哥 Sound component
gē, ge elder brother

Originally depicted an axe being carried. Later reanalyzed into phonetic component 哥.

欠
欠 Iconic component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Depicts a person opening their mouth.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartka[k]ˤaj sing, song

說文解字

《說文》：“歌，詠也。从欠，哥聲。謌，謌（歌）或从言。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.696
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

厅 tīng hall Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 广 represents the meaning and 丁 represents the sound. Simplified form of 廳.

Components

厂
厂 MeaningSimplified component
chǎng cliff, (roof)
丁
丁 Sound component
dīng cubes

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

廳 tīng hall Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 广 represents the meaning and 聽 represents the sound.

Components

广
广 Meaning component
guǎng roof
聽
聽 Sound component
tīng, ting hear

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangl̥ʰeːŋ

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica