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音符 (yīn fú) — musical note; phonetic component (of a phono-semantic character)

Definition

A homograph with two unrelated senses: in music, a "musical note"; in Chinese linguistics, the "phonetic component" of a phono-semantic character (形声字) that hints at pronunciation (e.g., 包 in 饱).

noun
musical notephonetic component (of a phono-semantic character)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 音符。
    Tā zài yuè pǔ shàng xiě le yí gè yīn fú.
    She wrote a musical note on the sheet music.
  • “”音符“”。
    Hàn zì "bǎo" de yīn fú shì "bāo".
    The phonetic component of the character 饱 is 包.
  • 音符。
    Xué xí yīn fú yǒu zhù yú jì yì xíng shēng zì de dú yīn.
    Learning about phonetic components helps remember the pronunciation of phono-semantic characters.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

音yīnsound
符fúsymbol

音 gives the sound idea, and 符 gives the symbol idea, together naming a musical note.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

音 adds a short stroke that seals the mouth-like part, showing a covered or muffled sound rather than speech.

Open 音 →

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
𥫗Written in full as竹zhúbamboo
Sound part声符shēngfú
付
付fù符fú
Same sound today

符 puts the bamboo form 竹, written 𥫗 on top, above 付, which gives the sound.

Open 符 →
Appears in
Music

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