阿拉木图 (A lā mù tú) — Almaty (former capital of Kazakhstan)

Definition

noun
Almaty (former capital of Kazakhstan)

Examples

  • 阿拉木图。
    Wǒ qù nián qù A lā mù tú lǚ yóu le.
    I went to Almaty for tourism last year.
  • 阿拉木图。
    A lā mù tú Shì hā sà kè sī tǎn de yí gè dà chéng shì.
    Almaty is a big city in Kazakhstan.
  • 阿拉木图。
    Cóng A lā mù tú zuò fēi jī dào běi jīng xū yào wǔ gè xiǎo shí.
    It takes five hours to fly from Almaty to Beijing.

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
拉lā
木mù
图tú

The characters merely spell the foreign place name; none carries 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.

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 →

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shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
立
立lì拉lā
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.

Open 拉 →

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

木 is drawn as a tree, with branches above and roots below.

Open 木 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 圖; 图 is its simplified writing.

  • 囗囗wéiwalled city
  • 啚啚bǐ

The traditional form 圖 pairs 囗, a walled city, with 啚, an early form meaning remote areas or territory. The simplified 图 is a later abbreviation.

Open 图 →

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