哈瓦那 (hā wǎ nà) — Havana (capital of Cuba)

Definition

noun

Havana (capital of Cuba)

哈瓦那。
Wǒ míng nián jì huà qù hā wǎ nà lǚ xíng.
I plan to travel to Havana next year.
哈瓦那，。
hā wǎ nà Shì gǔ bā de shǒu dū, yǐ xuě jiā hé yīn yuè wén míng.
Havana is the capital of Cuba, famous for cigars and music.
哈瓦那，。
Tā zài hā wǎ nà zhù le wǔ nián, xué huì le xī bān yá yǔ.
He lived in Havana for five years and learned Spanish.

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.

哈瓦那 is a sound spelling for Havana; its characters 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.

口合哈

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

合

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

哈 uses 口 (mouth) to show a mouth-related idea, and 合 as a sound part. The shape of 合 may look like two open mouths, but that is likely by chance.

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

瓦’s shape is a picture of fired earthenware pottery or a tile.

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

邑邑yìcity

Sound part声符shēngfú

冄

冉rǎn那nà

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

The right part 邑 shows a city, and the left part 冄 (written 冉) gives the sound. The character first named a state and was later used to mean 'that'.

Appears in