马拉维 (Mǎ lā wéi) — Malawi | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Malawi

马拉维。
Wǒ qù nián qù le Mǎ lā wéi lǚ yóu.
I went to Malawi for a trip last year.
马拉维。
Mǎ lā wéi Shì yí gè fēi zhōu guó jiā.
Malawi is an African country.
马拉维？
Nǐ zhī dào Mǎ lā wéi de shǒu dū shì nǎ lǐ ma?
Do you know where the capital of Malawi is?

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.

马拉维 spells the foreign name; 马, 拉, and 维 do not carry their usual meanings here.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 馬; 马 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 馬 shows a horse with its head facing left, a flowing mane, and two legs standing vertically.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

立

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

拉 pairs 手 (hand) with 立, a component that supplies the sound.

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 維; 维 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

糸糸mìthread

Sound part声符shēngfú

唯

Same sound today

In the traditional form 維, 糸 marks a thread meaning and 唯 provides the sound; the simplified 维 is a later shortened shape.