烟叶 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

Chinese Character Wiki Wiki

yānyè

tobacco leaf

yān smoke Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 因 represents the sound. Simplified form of 煙.

Components

火 Meaning component

huǒ fire

因 Sound component

yīn cause

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'en	[q]ˤi[n]	vapor, smoke

說文解字

《說文》：“煙，火气也。从火，垔聲。烟，或从因；，古文；，籀文从宀。”

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)

yè be in harmony, leaf Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound. Originally a variant of 協 (cooperate). Later used as the simplified form of the phonetically similar character 葉 (leaf).

Components

口 Meaning component

kǒu, kou mouth

Based on the meaning "cooperate", "be in harmony". Unrelated to "leaf".

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

叶 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
叶 *l[a]p
十 *t.[g]əp

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin: Wiktionary
Readings & variants: Unicode

yān smoke Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 垔 represents the sound.

Components

火 Meaning component

huǒ fire

垔 Sound component

yīn dam up, block, restrain

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'en	[q]ˤi[n]	smoke

說文解字

《說文》：“煙，火气也。从火，垔聲。烟，或从因；，古文；，籀文从宀。”

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)

yè leaf Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 枼 represents the sound.

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

枼 Sound Meaning component

yè leaf

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	yep	l[a]p	leaf

說文解字

《說文》：“葉，艸木之葉也。从艸，枼聲。”

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)