扎伊尔 (zhā yī ěr) — Zaire (former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Definition

noun
Zaire (former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Examples

  • 扎伊尔。
    zhā yī ěr Shì fēi zhōu zhōng bù de yí gè guó jiā.
    Zaire was a country in central Africa.
  • 扎伊尔。
    Tā céng zài zhā yī ěr shēng huó guò sān nián.
    He once lived in Zaire for three years.
  • 扎伊尔。
    zhā yī ěr Zhè ge guó míng xiàn zài yǐ jīng bú zài shǐ yòng le.
    The country name Zaire is no longer used now.

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.

扎zhā
伊yī
尔ěr

The characters 扎伊尔 only spell the foreign name Zaire and carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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
手手shǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
乙
乙yǐ扎zhā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

扎 is built from 手 (hand) and 乙, which gives the sound.

Open 扎 →

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
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
尹
尹yǐn伊yī
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 亻 shows a person. The right part 尹 is used for the sound.

Open 伊 →

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 →

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