李

Translingual

Etymology

From 木 ‘tree’ + 子 ‘children’, because of the plum tree's prolific breeding or because it was popular with children.

Han character

李 (radical 75 木+3, 7 strokes, cangjie input 木弓木 (DND), four-corner 4040₇){{#if:木|[[Category:Han characters}}|木03李]]

1. plum
2. a surname - see Li and Lee

Usage notes

In mainland China or among persons from mainland China, the spelling in the Latin alphabet is generally Li because this is the spelling convention dictated by the pinyin romanization system officially adopted by the People's Republic of China. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, the romanization Lee is most common, due to a more complex history of transcription systems; Li is sometimes used by persons from Taiwan, however.

Mandarin pronunciation: "lee" (with a slight dip of the Adam's apple at the first "e" sound, which then rises at the second "e" to produce the sound that hints of a question-mark accent)

Cantonese pronunciation: "lay" (with a slight dip of the Adam's apple at the "a" sound, which then rises at the "y" sound to produce a hint of a question-mark accent)

• Unihan data for U+F9E1

References

• KangXi: page 511, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14459
• Dae Jaweon: page 895, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1162, character 8
• Unihan data for U+674E

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Cantonese

Hanzi

李 (Yale lei5)

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Hmong

Hanzi

李

1. Li, Lee, Ly family surname

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Japanese

Kanji

李

1. plum

Readings

• On: り (ri), い (i)
• Kun: すもも (sumomo)

Noun

李 (hiragana すもも, romaji sumomo)

1. plum (Prunus salicina)

Alternative forms

• 酸桃

Proper noun

李 (katakana リ, romaji Ri)

1. Japanese reading of the Chinese or Korean surname.

李 (katakana リー, romaji Rī)

1. Japanese reading of the Chinese surname.

李 (katakana イ, romaji I)

1. Japanese reading of the Korean surname.

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Korean

Etymology

From Mandarin 李 (“plum”)

Pronunciation

• (North Korea) IPA: [ɾiː]
• (South Korea) IPA: [iː]

Hanja

李
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): (NK) 리, (SK) 이 (revised: Lee, (NK) ri, Rhee, (SK) i, I, McCune-Reischauer: (NK) ri, (SK) i, Yi, Yale: (NK) li, (SK) i)

• Name (hangeul): 자두(Jadu)()

1. (North Korea) 리, (South Korea) 이: the second most common surname in Korea
2. (North Korea) 리, (South Korea) 이: plum

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Mandarin

Hanzi

李 (pinyin lǐ (li3), Wade-Giles li³)

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Middle Chinese

Han character

李 (*liə̌)

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Min Nan

Hanzi

李 (POJ Lí)

Descendants

• (Hokkien dialect) Tagalog: Sy

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Vietnamese

Han character

李 (lý, Lý, lí)