萨摩亚 (Sà mó yà) — Samoa | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Samoa

萨摩亚。
Sà mó yà Shì tài píng yáng shàng de yí gè dǎo guó.
Samoa is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean.
萨摩亚。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Sà mó yà lǚ xíng.
I want to travel to Samoa next year.
萨摩亚。
Sà mó yà De shǒu dū shì ā pí yà.
The capital of Samoa is Apia.

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.

萨摩亚 spells the foreign name Samoa; the characters carry no meaning of their own 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.

麻手摩

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

麻

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

摩 combines 手 (hand) with 麻; the hand part relates to the meaning, and 麻 gives the sound.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.