坂

See also: 阪 and 坡

坂 U+5742, 坂 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5742 ← 坁 [U+5741] CJK Unified Ideographs 坃 → [U+5743]

Translingual

Han character

坂 (Kangxi radical 32, 土+4, 7 strokes, cangjie input 土竹水 (GHE), four-corner 4114₇ or 4214₇, composition ⿰土反)

Derived characters

• 𭇸

Further reading

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 224, character 26
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 4910
• Dae Jaweon: page 459, character 14
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 423, character 9
• Unihan data for U+5742

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 坂
Western Zhou	Warring States
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script

Characters in the same phonetic series (反) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
扳	*praːn, *pʰraːn
板	*praːnʔ
版	*praːnʔ
瓪	*praːnʔ, *paːnʔ
昄	*praːnʔ, *braːnʔ, *paːnʔ
鈑	*praːnʔ
蝂	*praːnʔ
眅	*pʰraːn, *pʰraːnʔ
阪	*braːnʔ, *panʔ
魬	*braːnʔ
粄	*paːnʔ
反	*panʔ, *pʰan
返	*panʔ
坂	*panʔ
畈	*pans
販	*pans
汳	*pʰans
飯	*bonʔ, *bons

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *panʔ): semantic 土 + phonetic 反 (OC *panʔ, *pʰan).

Etymology 1

trad.		坂
simp. #		坂
alternative forms		阪 岅／坂

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): bǎn (ban³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄢˇ

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: bǎn
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄢˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: bǎn
    • Wade–Giles: pan³
    • Yale: bǎn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: baan
    • Palladius: бань (banʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pän²¹⁴/

---

• Middle Chinese: pjonX

Rime
Character	坂
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	幫 (1)
Final (韻)	元 (66)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Closed
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	府遠切
Baxter	pjonX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/pʉɐnX/
Pan Wuyun	/pʷiɐnX/
Shao Rongfen	/piuɐnX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/puanX/
Li Rong	/piuɐnX/
Wang Li	/pĭwɐnX/
Bernhard Karlgren	/pi̯wɐnX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	fǎn
Expected Cantonese Reflex	faan2

• Old Chinese

  (Zhengzhang): /*panʔ/

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	坂
Reading #	1/1
No.	2970
Phonetic component	反
Rime group	元
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	反
Old Chinese	/*panʔ/
Notes	同阪見山海經

Definitions

坂

1. (literary) slope

Etymology 2

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of 坂 – see 阪 (“slope; hillside trail”). (This character is the simplified and variant form of 阪).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Compounds

• 下坂走丸
• 前坂 (Qiánbǎn)
• 大坂 (Dàbǎn)
• 布喀達坂峰 / 布喀达坂峰 (Bùkādábǎn Fēng)
• 蒲坂
• 達坂 / 达坂 (dábǎn)
• 長坂 / 长坂
• 長坂坡 / 长坂坡

Japanese

Kanji

坂

(Third grade kyōiku kanji)

1. alternative form of 阪

Readings

• Go-on: べん (ben)、ほん (hon)
• Kan-on: はん (han, Jōyō)
• Kan’yō-on: ばん (ban)
• Kun: さか (saka, 坂, Jōyō)

Etymology

Kanji in this term
坂
さか Grade: 3
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 坂 – see the following entry.

【さか】 [noun] slope; hill Alternative spelling 阪

(This term, 坂, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

References

• “坂”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2025

Korean

Hanja

坂 (eum 판 (pan))

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Vietnamese

Han character

坂: Hán Việt readings: phản
坂: Nôm readings: bản, phản, phằng

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.