哈尔滨 (Hā ěr bīn) — Harbin (capital of Heilongjiang Province)

Definition

noun

Harbin (capital of Heilongjiang Province)

Examples

哈尔滨。
Wǒ míng nián dōng tiān xiǎng qù Hā ěr bīn kàn bīng diāo.
I want to go to Harbin next winter to see the ice sculptures.
哈尔滨，。
Hā ěr bīn De dōng tiān suī rán hěn lěng, dàn shì fēng jǐng hěn měi.
Although Harbin's winter is very cold, the scenery is beautiful.
哈尔滨。
Tā cóng Hā ěr bīn zuò huǒ chē dào běi jīng xū yào bā gè xiǎo shí.
It takes him eight hours to take the train from Harbin to Beijing.

Origin

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.

哈hā

尔ěr

滨bīn

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; the word spells the place name Harbin.

Sound-only characters

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

口合哈

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

合

合hé哈hā

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

哈 uses 口 (mouth) to show a mouth-related idea, and 合 as a sound part. The shape of 合 may look like two open mouths, but that is likely by chance.

Open 哈 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

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 濱; 滨 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

水水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

賓

賓bīn濱bīn

Same sound today

The traditional form 濱 shows 水 (water) beside 賓 to give the sound; the simplified 滨 is a later abbreviation.

Open 滨 →

Appears in