乌克兰 (Wū kè lán) — Ukraine | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Ukraine

乌克兰。
Wū kè lán Shì dōng ōu de yí gè guó jiā.
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe.
乌克兰？
Nǐ liǎo jiě Wū kè lán de lì shǐ ma?
Do you know about Ukraine's history?
乌克兰。
Wǒ men lǎo shī lái zì Wū kè lán.
Our teacher is from Ukraine.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The three syllables spell the foreign name Ukraine; the individual hanzi do not contribute meaning.

Sound-only characters

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 烏; 乌 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 烏 is a drawing of a bird. The simplified 乌 is a later abbreviation.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 蘭; 兰 is its simplified writing.

艹闌蘭

Meaning part形符xíngfú

艹Written in full as艸cǎoplant

Sound part声符shēngfú

闌

闌lán蘭lán

Same sound today

In the traditional form 蘭, 艹 marks it as a plant and 闌 stands for the sound; the simplified 兰 is a later shorthand, not the original parts.