三亞

See also: 三亚

Chinese

		three	second; inferior; Asia
trad. (三亞)		三	亞
simp. (三亚)		三	亚

Etymology

Traditionally interpreted as derived from the river 三亞河, which was named after the fork-shaped junction (三丫) where the rivers 水蛟溪 and 半嶺水 of the river join in the city. However, this is now considered improbable as the characters 丫 and 亞 have different initial consonants in the local Hainanese dialect, making their pronunciations quite different. (Fu (2015))

Wang (2014) suggests that 三亞 is borrowed from Hlai [Term?], with 三 (Hainanese /ta¹/) translated from Hlai dax (/⁠ta²⁠/, “field; farmland”) and 亞 likely from the Hlai generic term for birds that appear similar to crows, particularly herons. Thus, 三亞 may mean "field with crows or herons". Note that places with 三 as the first character in their names are common in southern Hainan where the Li people, speakers of Hlai, live.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): Sānyà, Sānyǎ

  (Zhuyin): ㄙㄢ ㄧㄚˋ, ㄙㄢ ㄧㄚˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): saam¹ aa³

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, standard in Mainland and Taiwan)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: Sānyà
    • Zhuyin: ㄙㄢ ㄧㄚˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: Sanyà
    • Wade–Giles: San¹-ya⁴
    • Yale: Sān-yà
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Sanyah
    • Palladius: Санья (Sanʹja)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sän⁵⁵ jä⁵¹/
      
  • (Standard Chinese, common variant)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: Sānyǎ
    • Zhuyin: ㄙㄢ ㄧㄚˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: Sanyǎ
    • Wade–Giles: San¹-ya³
    • Yale: Sān-yǎ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Sanyea
    • Palladius: Санья (Sanʹja)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sän⁵⁵ jä²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: saam¹ aa³
    • Yale: sāam a
    • Cantonese Pinyin: saam¹ aa³
    • Guangdong Romanization: sam¹ a³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /saːm⁵⁵ aː³³/

Proper noun

(deprecated template usage) 三亞

1. Sanya (a prefecture-level city in Hainan, China)