塔利班 (tǎ lì bān) — the Taliban (Islamist political group in Afghan… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

塔利班 (Tǎlìbān) is a transliteration of 'Taliban' — the Islamist political movement that has ruled Afghanistan since the 1990s. It is a fixed proper noun, always capitalized in English equivalents.

noun

the Taliban (Islamist political group in Afghanistan)

Examples

塔利班。
Ā fù hàn yǐ jīng bèi tǎ lì bān kòng zhì le èr shí nián.
Afghanistan has been controlled by the Taliban for twenty years.
塔利班。
Hěn duō guó jiā dōu bù chéng rèn tǎ lì bān zhèng fǔ.
Many countries do not recognize the Taliban government.
塔利班。
Zhè jǐ nián tǎ lì bān de zhèng cè yǐn qǐ le bù shǎo zhēng yì.
In recent years, the Taliban's policies have sparked considerable controversy.

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.

The characters 塔利班 carry no meaning of their own here; the word spells the foreign name Taliban.

Sound-only characters

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

土荅塔

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

荅

荅dá塔tǎ

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

塔 shows 土 (earth) for the meaning and 荅 (dá) for the sound.

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

禾禾hégrain
刀刀dāoknife

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

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

珏珏juépieces of jade
刀刀dāoknife

班 shows 珏, pieces of jade, and 刀, a knife, cutting them into pieces.

Appears in

Government & Politics

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