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An answer in Linguistics led me to investigate the radicals composing the written word 'right' (右), which led me to the stone radical (石). There is a very subtle (to me) difference in that the lines cross for the former case but just touch in the latter case. Is there an etymological connection between these?

Also, while I can see that the stone radical seems to be composed of the cliff radical (厂) and either the enclosure radical (囗) or the mouth radical (口)*, I cannot find the radical that's like cliff but crosses, as in 右.

* While I can see the mouth is narrower, those are far too subtly different for me to distinguish

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the character “右” & “石” just look similar in regular script, do not fixate on it.

both characters in oracle bone script, and bronze script are significantly different:

https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=石

https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=右

have fun :)

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  • yes, its like asking if the letter "bat" and "pat" are related because of how similar they appear visially. characters with less lines are frequently going to have some similar looking characters by coincidence.
    – zagrycha
    Apr 24 at 19:15
  • @zagrycha Given the nature of logographic writing, I'd say it's closer to asking if the letters "I" (uppercase i) and "l" (lowercase L) are related, or whether "0" (zero) and "O" (oh) are related.
    – Ben Hocking
    Apr 24 at 19:52
  • See also: dictionary.com/e/o-zero/….
    – Ben Hocking
    Apr 24 at 19:55
  • And: english.stackexchange.com/questions/105818/….
    – Ben Hocking
    Apr 24 at 19:55
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    To be fair, it's a bit like asking if "q" and "g" are related. Maybe?
    – Mou某 ♦
    Apr 24 at 21:10

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