巴拉圭 (Bā lā guī) — Paraguay | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Paraguay

巴拉圭。
Bā lā guī Shì nán měi zhōu de yí gè guó jiā.
Paraguay is a country in South America.
巴拉圭。
Qù nián tā qù le Bā lā guī lǚ xíng.
He traveled to Paraguay last year.
巴拉圭。
Bā lā guī De guān fāng yǔ yán shì xī bān yá yǔ.
The official language of Paraguay is 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.

The characters simply spell the foreign name Paraguay and do not carry separate meanings here.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

立

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.

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

圭 stacks two 士 parts, drawn as two ritual axes, perhaps made of jade, one above the other.