22
votes
Accepted
What's this new Chinese character which looks like 座?
Technically it isn't a new Chinese character but a Japanese character.
Eileen Chow posted about this on Twitter saying:
Winner of 2020’s new kanji contest in Japan: the character 座 (seat), ...
Mou某♦
- 35.7k
19
votes
Why is 刻 used to mean ''a quarter of an hour''?
刻 means ''to carve'' but my dictionary also says it means ''to set a time limit''.
well, you need a better dictionary 😼
in 國語辭典, the first explanation of the entry “刻”, as noun is:
古代計時的名稱，...
- 15.1k
18
votes
Accepted
What is an “exoactive” Chinese character?
These terms were devised in the late 20th century analysis of Classical Japanese, originally, for the difference between -(さ)す (glossed as externally instigated) and -(ら)る (glossed as internally ...
- 6,348
17
votes
Accepted
Is there any connection between the choice of characters for 九 and 丸?
「九」 and 「丸」 are not related. As @user3306356 points out, 「丸」 is probably related to 「夗」.
商朝甲骨文菁2.1合集6057西周金文作冊夨令簋集成4300戰國・晉金文東周左𠂤壺集成9640小篆九部說文解字今楷書
「九」 depicts an arm showing the hand, a bent wrist,...
- 22.1k
16
votes
Accepted
What is the story or reason of how 龙 came from 龍?
TL;DR
Long Answer
From the oracle script to the seal script, character 龍 evolved from simple to complex. The seal script was already very similar to 龍.
However later, variants (there were too many!)...
- 6,073
14
votes
Accepted
Stroke order database
There are some recent open source efforts that have opened this up a bit. One is hanzi writer, which was based on the data for 3195 strokes contained in ZDT but now uses the more complete character ...
- 266
13
votes
Why is 吏 (lì) pronounced differently to 史 (shǐ) and 使 (shǐ)?
Let us look at the reconstructions (specifically, at Baxter-Sagart):
吏 (lì) 'officer' is [r]əʔ-s;
史 (shǐ) 'scribe' is s-rəʔ;
使 (shǐ) 'to send, to cause' is s-rəʔ;
使 (shì) 'to be sent as an envoy; ...
- 966
12
votes
Is there an alphabetic system in the Chinese language?
The official way to write Chinese uses Chinese characters, which is not an alphabetical system.
There have been various phonetic systems developed to either write or transcribe Chinese. Some of these ...
- 22.1k
11
votes
Accepted
List of all traditional Chinese characters
Download CJSYS-20110919.zip.
Find /CJSYS-20110919/cjsys/yong/mb/cj5-13053.txt
Copy the [DATA] section (from line 9 to 14136) into a spreadsheet.
Remove whatever you don't need.
Sort.
Remove duplicates....
- 5,886
11
votes
Accepted
How to look up seal script characters?
For a freely available method, Guoxuedashi offers an interface to look up seal script characters.
Prerequisites:
Internet Explorer (seal script links do not dislpay properly on other browsers, ...
- 22.1k
11
votes
Accepted
How do I get the enumeration comma (、) in Google input tools?
I think you can try the backslash "\".
- 1,599
11
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of 子 in words like 菓子(과자), 帽子(모자), or 獅子(사자)?
「子」originally meant child. By extension, through the following sequence, it was further used:
To emphasise the smallness of an object.
As a diminutive suffix, conveying a sense of intimacy/endearment....
- 22.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Does this building on chinese painting exist for real ? May the text which come along be of any help?
the building exists, it’s called “turtle tower”, in hanoi, vietnam:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoàn_Kiếm_Lake
- 15.1k
11
votes
Is it viable to write Chinese in emoji?
Some people are already doing this for fun. Replacing (some of) the Chinese characters in a sentence with emojis. Sometimes it is used to curse, with a somewhat softened tone. Sometimes it is used to ...
- 3,853
10
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between 夜(yè) and 晚 (wǎn)?
Originally, 晚 could be written as 莫 (in ancient form): 艹（草, grass）+ 日 (sun), referring to when the sun is below the grass -- sunset.
In modern Chinese, we can understand or memorize it in this way: ...
- 602
10
votes
Accepted
How was 辣 used before the Columbian Exchange?
in ancient time, "辛" was used, in lieu of 辣. e.g. in 洪範:
潤下作鹹﹒炎上作苦﹒曲直作酸﹒從革作辛﹒稼穡作甘
http://ctext.org/shang-shu/great-plan/zh?searchu=潤下作鹹，炎上作苦，曲直作酸，從革作辛，稼穡作甘%E3%80%82&searchmode=showall#result
...
- 15.1k
10
votes
Has Unicode included these Classical Chinese characters?
𢂎 U+2208E
𦩳 U+26A73
𥸷 U+25E37
𤭹 U+24B79
𠰉 U+20C09
𢮿 U+22BBF
𦧴 U+269F4
𢜫 U+2272B
𤍐 U+24350
𢃛 U+220DB
𤟔 U+247D4
𣩒 U+23A52
𩵖 U+29D56
𪇇 U+2A1C7
𩬱 U+29B31
𤜅 U+24705
﨣 U+FA23
𥺝 U+25E9D
髟＋忿？(...
- 5,886
10
votes
Apple Watch has a built in response of "一个字。非常棒！👊". Is this correct?
1.字 = character, 词 = word
2."一个字，非常棒" can be either an incorrect translation (which is not rare in big companies' products) or a net slang phrase("一个字，XXX" where XXX is intentionally more than one ...
- 1,753
10
votes
Accepted
What is "qiou"?
The character is made up for a dialectical word qiǔ.
Constructed as「⿱穷土」, the definition is dirt-poor (「穷」到吃「土」), and the prescribed reading qiou is a Fanqie-like combination of 「穷」(qiong, poor) and「...
- 22.1k
10
votes
For the character"冒"，is the top part "日" or "曰"？
For the character"冒"，is the top part "日" or "曰"？
Neither.
冒 is comprised of simultaneously semantic and phonetic 冃 (mào, hat) and phonetic 目 (mù). The word that both 冃 and 冒 originally represented ...
- 22.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Why is 景 written "wrong" on the Nestorian Stele?
This is a 隸書 form of 景. According to the references cited in the 教育部異體字字典, it occurs on steles from the Tang dynasty.
Sometimes these variations are done for ease of cutting, or because certain ...
- 4,335
9
votes
Accepted
What are the different words for "and" that can be used in a list and how do they differ?
used to connect words: 和; 與; 跟; 及; 以及;
和 can be used everywhere.
跟 is used in oral cases mostly.
與, 及, 以及 are used mostly in writing.
used to connect clauses or sentences: 並且; 而且
- 1,599
9
votes
Accepted
Can I always write the 艹 (grass radical) with three lines only?
Two notes:
艹 is 4 strokes in Taiwan and Hong Kong only. It is less helpful to think of it as a "traditional"/"simplified" difference, as among other standards which use "traditional characters" (e.g. ...
- 22.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Which organization defines CJK Unified Ideographs?
On the Frequently Asked Questions page for Chinese and Japanese on Unicode there is a question that asks:
Q: Who is responsible for future CJK characters?
The answer reads:
A: The development and ...
Mou某♦
- 35.7k
9
votes
Accepted
Meaning of early written versions of 地 and etymology?
「地」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[l]ˤej-s/, ground) is comprised of semantic 「土」 (picture of a lump of dirt) and phonetic 「也」 (/*lAjʔ/). This structure is found relatively late, derived from a graphical ...
- 22.1k
8
votes
Accepted
Is there a difference between 夂 and 夊?
Short Answer
The shapes「夂」and「夊」are writing variants. As a component of a character, the majority of the time it is just a「止」(picture of a foot) pointing in the opposite direction to「止」.
The ...
- 22.1k
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