都柏林 (Dū bó lín) — Dublin (capital of Ireland) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Dublin (capital of Ireland)

Examples

都柏林。
Wǒ qù nián qù guò Dū bó lín.
I went to Dublin last year.
都柏林。
Dū bó lín Shì ài ěr lán de shǒu dū.
Dublin is the capital of Ireland.
都柏林。
Dū bó lín Yǒu hěn duō zhù míng de dà xué.
Dublin has many famous universities.

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.

The characters 都柏林 carry no separate meaning here; together they spell a foreign place name.

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

邑邑yìtown, city

Sound part声符shēngfú

者

者zhě都dōu

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

都 is built from 者, which supplies the sound, and 邑, meaning town or city.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

木白柏

Meaning part形符xíngfú

木木mùtree

Sound part声符shēngfú

白

白bái柏bǎi

Same sound today

柏 pairs 木, showing a tree, with 白, which gives the sound.

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

木木林

木木mùtree
木木mùtree

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

Appears in

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