奥克兰 (Aò kè lán) — Oakland; Auckland | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

In Chinese this name covers two different cities: Oakland in California (as in the example 'near San Francisco') and Auckland in New Zealand. Use context — like 旧金山 or 新西兰 — to tell which one is meant.

noun

OaklandAuckland

Examples

奥克兰，。
Wǒ zhù zài Aò kè lán, lí jiù jīn shān hěn jìn.
I live in Oakland, very close to San Francisco.
奥克兰。
Aò kè lán Shì xīn xī lán běi dǎo de yí gè chéng shì.
Auckland is a city on the North Island of New Zealand.
奥克兰。
Cóng běi jīng fēi wǎng Aò kè lán xū yào shí jǐ gè xiǎo shí.
It takes over ten hours to fly from Beijing to Auckland.

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.

The characters 奥克兰 only spell the foreign name Oakland/Auckland and carry no meanings here.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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.

Appears in

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