叙利亚 (Xù lì yà) — Syria | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Syria

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 three characters only spell the foreign name Syria; they carry no meaning of their own 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 敘; 叙 is its simplified writing.

余攵敘

Meaning part形符xíngfú

攵Written in full as攴pū

Sound part声符shēngfú

余

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

The traditional form 敘 puts 余 on the left, giving the sound yú, and 攵 on the right as the meaningful part; the simplified 叙 is a shorthand.

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

利 combines 禾 (grain) and 刀 (knife), showing a knife used to cut grain.

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.

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