讷河 (Nè hé) — Nehe (county-level city in Heilongjiang Provinc…

Definition

讷河 (Nèhé) is the name of a county-level city in Heilongjiang Province, in northeast China — the full formal name is 讷河市.

noun

Nehe (county-level city in Heilongjiang Province, China)

讷河。
Nè hé Shì hēi lóng jiāng shěng de yí gè xiàn jí shì.
Nehe is a county-level city in Heilongjiang Province.
讷河。
Wǒ cóng lái méi qù guò Nè hé.
I have never been to Nehe.
讷河。
Nè hé Shì de rén kǒu dà yuē yǒu qī shí wàn.
The population of Nehe City is about 700,000.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

The characters 讷 and 河 together form the place name and carry no independent meaning 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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 訥; 讷 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

言言yánspeech

Sound part声符shēngfú

內

內nèi訥nè

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

The traditional form 訥 pairs 言 (speech) with 內 to give the sound; the simplified 讷 is a later shorthand.

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

何

Same sound today

河 pairs 水 (water) with 何, which gives the sound. The 水 part marks it as a word for a river.