建

Translingual

Stroke order

Phonosemantic interpretation

Old Chinese Initial /*k-/ lends semantic value Frame. Final consonant /*-n/ lends semantic value Adhere/Be Proximate. Phono-semantic indicator 廴 extension + 聿 implement held upright to carve/draw characters (→ upright object) → extend vertically in making erect. Source: Howell & Morimoto

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 廴 + phonetic 聿

Han character

建 (radical 54 廴+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 弓大中手 (NKLQ), four-corner 1540₀, composition ⿺廴聿)

1. build, establish, erect, found

Derived characters

• 健 鍵 (键)

References

• KangXi: page 353, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 9574
• Dae Jaweon: page 667, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 404, character 10
• Unihan data for U+5EFA

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Cantonese

Hanzi

建 (Yale gin3)

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Japanese

Kanji

建 (grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: けん (ken), こん (kon)
• Kun: たてる (tateru)

Compounds

• 建設
• 建造
• 建築
• 建具
• 土建

Proper noun

建 (hiragana けん, romaji Ken)

1. A male given name

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Korean

Hanja

建 (hangeul 건, revised geon, McCune-Reischauer kŏn)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

建 (pinyin jiàn (jian4), niàn (nian4), Wade-Giles chien⁴, nien⁴)

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Middle Chinese

Han character

建 (*giæ̀n)

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Vietnamese

Han character

建 (kiến)