阿比让 (A bǐ ràng) — Abidjan (largest city of Ivory Coast)

Definition

noun
Abidjan (largest city of Ivory Coast)

Examples

  • 阿比让。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù A bǐ ràng lǚ xíng.
    I want to travel to Abidjan next year.
  • 阿比让。
    A bǐ ràng Shì kē tè dí wǎ zuì dà de chéng shì.
    Abidjan is the largest city in Ivory Coast.
  • 阿比让。
    Wǒ men zuò fēi jī cóng běi jīng dào A bǐ ràng.
    We flew from Beijing to Abidjan.

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
比bǐ
让ràng

阿比让 spells a foreign name; 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
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 →

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

  • 匕匕bǐ
  • 匕匕bǐ

比 is two 匕 placed side by side. Chu Wan-li treats both as sound parts, while an old reading takes the side-by-side arrangement as putting things next to each other.

Open 比 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 讓; 让 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yán
Sound part声符shēngfú
襄
襄xiāng讓ràng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 讓 combines 言, showing speech, with 襄, giving the sound; the evidence links it to criticizing or reproaching. The simplified 让 is a later shorthand.

Open 让 →

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