塔林 (tǎ lín) — Tallinn (capital of Estonia)

Definition

noun
Tallinn (capital of Estonia)

Examples

  • 塔林。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù tǎ lín lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Tallinn next year.
  • 塔林。
    tǎ lín Shì ài shā ní yà de shǒu dū.
    Tallinn is the capital of Estonia.
  • 塔林。
    Tā zài tǎ lín zhù le sān nián.
    He lived in Tallinn for three years.

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.

塔tǎ
林lín

The characters 塔 林 together spell the name Tallinn, carrying 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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
土土tǔ
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.

Open 塔 →

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

林 is made of two 木 (tree) placed side by side, showing many trees together, hence a forest.

Open 林 →

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