All Questions
6 questions
1
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3
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Why is 网 considered inside the 亡 phonetic series on wikitionary?
On wikitionary's page about phonetic series under the 亡 entry we find 网 even though 网 is described to be a pictogram on it's own wikitionary page.
If we look on wikipedia's page about Phonetic series, ...
- 111
4
votes
2
answers
211
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鉛 Reading Phonology
Why does this word for Lead 鉛 seem to have two different pronounciations?
In most Chinese Languages / Languages that borrowed this word ( Japanese / Korean ) they all read similar to the Middle ...
- 43
1
vote
2
answers
338
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What’s the deal with the xing-type readings for 行?
How come did the readings of the xing-category appear for 行?
They make no sense. The Early Middle Chinese for “to walk” is γæng, which should give héng – and so it does, in 胻, 蘅, 桁 – even with the ...
- 1,031
4
votes
4
answers
425
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Why does "yin" (陰) comes first in "yin-yang" (陰陽)?
In the yin-yang dynamic, yang is pretty much always the dominant force: it represents the sun (the "great yang", 太陽), brightness, positivity (陽性), masculinity (the penis, 陽物), the living (陽間,...
- 344
12
votes
3
answers
2k
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Why does Mandarin Chinese have a smaller inventory of unique syllables?
From How languages compare with the number of different syllables from all words?, considering the 20,000 most frequent words in each language, Mandarin Chinese has 1274 different syllables (see also ...
- 2,162
6
votes
1
answer
448
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Is 勺 really the phonetic component of 的?
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 ...
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