琵
pí

guitar-like instrument

Phonosemantic compound. 玨 represents the meaning and 比 represents the sound.

Components

玨
玨 Meaning component
jué two pieces of jade joined together
比
比 Sound component
bǐ to compare

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangbi
Unicodebhi

說文解字

琵琶，樂器。从珡比聲。

Sources

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