拉萨 (Lā sà) — Lhasa (capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region)

Definition

noun

Lhasa (capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region)

拉萨。
Lā sà Shì xī zàng de shǒu dū.
Lhasa is the capital of Tibet.
拉萨。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Lā sà lǚ yóu.
I want to travel to Lhasa next year.
拉萨，。
Lā sà De hǎi bá hěn gāo, yào zhù yì gāo yuán fǎn yìng.
Lhasa is at a high altitude; be aware of altitude sickness.

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.

拉萨 spells the place name Lhasa; the characters carry no meaning of their own 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.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in