北

Translingual

Etymology

Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Ideogrammic compound (會意) - two men back to back. Originally meaning "back".

Phonetically borrowed for the meaning of "north". The derivative 背 refers to the original word.

Han character

北 (radical 21 匕+3, 5 strokes, cangjie input 中一心 (LMP), four-corner 1111₀)

See also

• 兆 比 非

References

• KangXi: page 152, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2574
• Dae Jaweon: page 342, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 262, character 4
• Unihan data for U+5317

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Chinese

		-
simp. and trad.		北

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): běi (bei³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄟˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): bak¹
• Hakka (Pha̍k-fa-sṳ): pet
• Min Nan (POJ): pak / pok
• Wu (WT Romanisation): poq (T4)

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: běi
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄟˇ
    • Wade-Giles: pei³
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: beei
    • IPA ^(key): /peɪ̯²¹⁴/

    • (file)

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: bak¹
    • Yale: bāk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: bak⁷
    • IPA ^(key): /pɐk̚⁵/
• Hakka
  • Romanisations:
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: pet
    • IPA (Siyen, incl. Miaoli): /pet̚²/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pak / pok
    • Tâi-lô: pak / pok
    • IPA (Taipei): /pak̚³²/, /pɔk̚³²/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /pak̚³²/, /pɔk̚³²/
• Wu
  • (Shanghainese)
    • WT Romanisation: poq (T4)
    • IPA ^(key): /pʊʔ⁵⁵/

Middle Chinese pronunciation (北, reconstructed)
Character (北), Pronunciation 1/1
Initial: 幫 (1) Final: 德 Division: I			Openness: Open Tone: Checked (Ø)			Fanqie: 博墨切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/pək̚/	/pək̚/	/pək̚/	/pək̚/	/pək̚/	/pək̚/	/pək̚/

Old Chinese pronunciation (北, reconstructed)
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character								Modern Beijing (Pinyin)								Middle Chinese								Old Chinese								English
北								běi								‹ pok ›								/*pˤək/								north
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character					No.					Phonetic component					Rime group					Rime subdivision					Corresponding MC rime					Old Chinese					Notes
北					414					北					職					0					北					/*pɯːɡ/

Noun

北

1. north, northern

Coordinate terms

• 東／东
• 西
• 南

Compounds

• 北半球
• 北边, 北边儿
• 北部
• 北辰
• 北斗星
• 北豆腐
• 北伐战争
• 北方
• 北方话
• 北瓜
• 北国
• 北寒带
• 北回归线
• 北货
• 北极
• 北极光
• 北极狐

• 北极圈
• 北极星
• 北极熊
• 北郊
• 北京
• 北京时间
• 北京猿人
• 北路梆子
• 北冕座
• 北面, 北面儿
• 北欧
• 北曲
• 北上
• 北天极
• 北纬
• 北温带
• 北洋

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Japanese

Kanji

北

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. north

Readings

• Goon: ほく (hoku)
• Kan’on: ほく (hoku)
• On (unclassified): はい (hai)
• Kun: きた (kita), にげる (nigeru)

Kanji in this term

北

きた Grade: 2

kun'yomi

Noun

北 (hiragana きた, romaji kita)

1. north

Proper noun

北 (hiragana きた, romaji Kita)

1. A surname​.

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Korean

Hanja

北 (buk, bae)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 북, 배 (revised: buk, bae, McCune-Reischauer: puk, pae, Yale: puk, pay)

• Name (hangeul): 북녘, 달아나다 (revised: bungnyeok, dalanada, McCune-Reischauer: pungnyŏk, talanada, Yale: puknyekh, tal.anata)

1. the north, the northern part

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Vietnamese

Han character

北 (bắc, bác, bấc, bậc, bước)

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