巴尔干 (Bā ěr gān) — Balkans

Definition

noun
Balkans

Examples

  • 巴尔干。
    Qù nián wǒ qù le Bā ěr gān lǚ xíng.
    I traveled to the Balkans last year.
  • 巴尔干。
    Bā ěr gān Dì qū yǒu hěn duō bù tóng de mín zú.
    The Balkan region has many different ethnic groups.
  • 巴尔干。
    Zhè běn shū jiè shào le Bā ěr gān de lì shǐ.
    This book introduces the history of the Balkans.

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.

巴bā
尔ěr
干gān

The characters spell the foreign name Balkan and carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 巴 →

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 →

The simplified 干 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (饼干, 干杯) it is 乾; in others (干, 干活儿) (干扰) it is 幹 or 干.

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 乾; 干 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
乙乙yǐ
Sound part声符shēngfú
倝
倝gàn乾gān
Same sound today
Open 干 →

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