拉各斯 (Lā gè sī) — Lagos (city in Nigeria)

Definition

noun

Lagos (city in Nigeria)

拉各斯。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù ní rì lì yà de Lā gè sī lǚ yóu.
I want to travel to Lagos, Nigeria next year.
拉各斯。
Lā gè sī Shì ní rì lì yà zuì dà de chéng shì.
Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria.
拉各斯。
Cóng běi jīng dào Lā gè sī yǒu zhí fēi háng bān.
There are direct flights from Beijing to Lagos.

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.

拉各斯 spells Lagos; the characters are only sound marks and carry no meaning 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.

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.

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

夂口各

各 shows a sole of a foot (夂) coming into an entrance (口), for the sense of coming or entering.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.