斯拉夫 (Sī lā fū) — Slavic (attributive modifier)

Definition

Refers to the Slavic peoples, languages, and cultures of Eastern Europe — typically used as an attributive modifier (斯拉夫语言, 斯拉夫国家).

adjective

Slavic (attributive modifier)

斯拉夫。
Sī lā fū Wén huà yuán yuǎn liú cháng.
Slavic culture has a long history.
斯拉夫。
Sī lā fū Yǔ shǔ yú yìn ōu yǔ xì.
Slavic languages belong to the Indo-European language family.
斯拉夫。
Hěn duō Sī lā fū guó jiā shǐ yòng xī lǐ ěr zì mǔ.
Many Slavic countries use the Cyrillic alphabet.

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 斯拉夫 only spell the foreign name Slav/Slavic and carry no independent meanings here.

Sound-only characters

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

立

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

拉 pairs 手 (hand) with 立, a component that supplies the sound.

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.

夫 originally drew a man. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write a pronoun, so the picture and the pronoun meaning are unrelated.

Appears in