纳米比亚 (Nà mǐ bǐ yà) — Namibia

Definition

noun
Namibia

Examples

  • 纳米比亚。
    Wǒ cóng lái méi yǒu qù guò Nà mǐ bǐ yà.
    I have never been to Namibia.
  • 纳米比亚。
    Nà mǐ bǐ yà Shì yí gè fēi zhōu guó jiā.
    Namibia is an African country.
  • 纳米比亚。
    Wǒ rèn shi yí gè cóng Nà mǐ bǐ yà lái de péng you.
    I know a friend from Namibia.

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.

纳nà
米mǐ
比bǐ
亚yà

The characters only spell the foreign name Namibia and carry no meaning of their own.

Sound-only characters

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 納; 纳 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糸糸mìsilk, thin thread
Sound part声符shēngfú
内
内nèi納nà
Same sound today

The traditional form 納 has 糸 (silk, thin thread) and 内, which gives the sound; the simplified 纳 is a shorthand.

Open 纳 →

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

米 is a picture of rice kernels without husk, with the horizontal stroke as a bamboo sieve. It is unrelated to similar-looking grain characters.

Open 米 →

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

  • 匕匕bǐ
  • 匕匕bǐ

比 is two 匕 placed side by side. Chu Wan-li treats both as sound parts, while an old reading takes the side-by-side arrangement as putting things next to each other.

Open 比 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.

Open 亚 →

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