哈萨克人 (Hā sà kè rén) — Kazakh (person or people)

Definition

noun
Kazakh (person or people)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 哈萨克人。
    Hā sà kè rén Shì zhōng guó de shǎo shù mín zú zhī yī.
    The Kazakh people are one of China's ethnic minorities.
  • 哈萨克人。
    Tā shì yí wèi Hā sà kè rén.
    He is a Kazakh person.
  • 哈萨克人。
    Hěn duō Hā sà kè rén zhù zài xīn jiāng.
    Many Kazakh people live in Xinjiang.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

哈萨克Kazakh
哈hā萨sà克kè
人rénperson

哈萨克 spells the foreign name Kazakh, and 人 denotes a person, together meaning a Kazakh person.

Characters in this word

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

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 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 萨 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 克 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

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