阿尔巴尼亚 (A ěr bā ní yà) — Albania

Definition

noun
Albania

Examples

  • 阿尔巴尼亚。
    Wǒ dǎ suàn míng nián qù A ěr bā ní yà lǚ yóu.
    I plan to travel to Albania next year.
  • 阿尔巴尼亚。
    A ěr bā ní yà Wèi yú bā ěr gàn bàn dǎo xī bù.
    Albania is located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula.
  • 阿尔巴尼亚。
    A ěr bā ní yà De lì shǐ wén huà fēi cháng dú tè.
    Albania's history and culture are very unique.

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.

阿ā
尔ěr
巴bā
尼ní
亚yà

The characters spell the foreign name Albania and 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
阜阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
可
可kě阿ā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The part 阜 points to a mound, and 可 gives the pronunciation; 阿 originally meant a big mound.

Open 阿 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 巴 →

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

The shape draws one person sitting on or leaning against another person, giving the sense of stopping close to someone.

Open 尼 →

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.

Open 亚 →

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