6

The etymology of 的 is described here. Is this resource correct is saying that 勺 is this character's phonetic component? I ask because it doesn't seem to hint at the correct pronunciation at all. 勺 is pronounced sháo while 的 is pronounced de. Thanks!

Improve this question
1
  • My guess is that 勺 must have had a different pronunciation or alternate readings in the past, thinking in centuries or millennia, of course. Although this dictionary does not provide any of that, but it confirms that 勺 is the phonetic part. lcprichi.hkbu.edu.hk/search/show_word.php?id=1794
    – imrek
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 23:34

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
11

Modern Chinese has underwent many pronunciation changes since characters were first invented and phonetic components often reflect words as they were pronounced in Old Chinese rather than modern Chinese.

The pronunciations of 的 and 勺 were much more similar in Old Chinese. This link explains:

的 and 勺 had roughly similar pronunciations in Old Chinese; Baxter-Sagart reconstruct 的 as *t-lˤewk, compared with 勺 *m-t-qewk.

Note the that 的 character as originally used means "target" and is pronounced dì in Modern Mandarin. In modern times, it was borrowed to also represent the genitive particle de (this usage ultimately descends from 之; refer to this previous question for more information).

A few other modern Chinese languages still preserve the final -k in both of these words. For instance, Cantonese has the pronunciations dik (IPA: /tɪk/) and zoek (IPA: /t͡sœːk/) for 的 and 勺.

Improve this answer
3
  • Btw, it's interesting that 的 is often pronounced 'di' in songs, when it would be pronounced as 'de' in normal speech. Is there any explanation for that?
    – imrek
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 23:39
  • 1
    @DrunkenMaster Your question is covered here: chinese.stackexchange.com/a/1551 In my opinion, the currently second highest voted answer there is the actual correct one.
    – Claw
    Commented Nov 16, 2014 at 5:10
  • 1
    For comparison, Karlgren’s reconstruction of 勺 and 的 were *ɗi̭ok and *tiok, while 藤堂明保 Akiyasu Tōdō reconstructed them as *dhiɔk and *tɔ̈k, respectively, for Classical Chinese.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Nov 17, 2014 at 20:41

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.