阿尔萨斯 (A ěr sà sī) — Alsace (a historical region in northeastern France)

Definition

noun
Alsace (a historical region in northeastern France)

Examples

  • 阿尔萨斯。
    Wǒ tīng shuō A ěr sà sī de pú tao jiǔ hěn yǒu míng.
    I've heard that the wine from Alsace is very famous.
  • 阿尔萨斯，。
    A ěr sà sī Wèi yú fǎ guó dōng bù, kào jìn dé guó.
    Alsace is located in eastern France, near Germany.
  • 阿尔萨斯。
    Tā men míng nián jì huà qù A ěr sà sī lǚ xíng.
    They plan to travel to Alsace next year.

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.

阿ā
尔ěr
萨sà
斯sī

The characters in 阿尔萨斯 carry no meaning of their own; the whole form spells Alsace.

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
阜阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
可
可kě阿ā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The part 阜 points to a mound, and 可 gives the pronunciation; 阿 originally meant a big mound.

Open 阿 →

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 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 萨 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 斯 →

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