天

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See also: 夫, 禾, 末, 未, and 夭
天 U+5929, 天
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5929
← 夨
[U+5928]		 CJK Unified Ideographs 太 →
[U+592A]

Translingual[edit]

Stroke order
天-order.gif

Han character[edit]

天 (radical 37 大+1, 4 strokes, cangjie input 一大 (MK), four-corner 10430, composition ⿱一大)

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

  • KangXi: page 248, character 4
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5833
  • Dae Jaweon: page 500, character 2
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 522, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+5929

Chinese[edit]

simp. and trad.
 天
alt. forms 𠀘
𠀡
𠀑
The sky over Guangdong.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in Beijing's Temple of Heaven.

Glyph origin[edit]

Historical forms of the character 天
Shang Western Zhou Warring States Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Chu Slip and silk script Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
天-oracle.svg 天-bronze.svg 天-silk.svg 天-seal.svg 天-bigseal.svg
Characters in the same phonetic series (天) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
添 *tʰiːm
忝 *l̥ʰiːmʔ, *l̥ʰiːms
悿 *tʰiːmʔ
舔 *l̥ʰiːmʔ
菾 *diːm
天 *qʰl'iːn
吞 *qʰl'iːn, *qʰl'ɯːn
祆 *qʰliːn
蚕 *zluːm, *hl'iːnʔ

A top line representing the level above a man with outstretched arms (大 (dà)). Ancient representation of the character show a man with a large head, an anthropomorphic representation of heaven.

Original meaning of the word is "sky". Such concept is difficult to depict with a pictogram, hence the current form. Influenced by the glyph, the character was frequently glossed in Old Chinese documents with 顛 (“crown of the head”), and such had led to incorrect hypotheses which regarded 天 as a derivation of 顛 or 巔, "top (of the head/hill)".

Graphical opposite of 立 (lì).

Etymology[edit]

This character was previously reconstructed to have a *tʰ-initial in Old Chinese, but this hypothesis has been largely discounted in recent reconstructions, in light of evidence from early Chinese accounts of dialectal pronunciations, transcription of other languages, as well as cognate/derived characters within Chinese, which has all pointed to a voiceless resonant initial *l̥- in Old Chinese. The book Shiming showed that, by c. 200 CE, this initial had already produced dialectal variation in the pronunciation: People in central-western China pronounced it with the back of the tongue, like 顯 [*xˁenʔ], while people in eastern China pronounced it with the tip of the tongue, like 坦 [*tʰˁanʔ]. An old northwestern dialect variant survives as 祆 (xiān, “God of the Zoroastrians”) [xen], and the word 天竺 (Tiānzhú, “India”) was used to transcribe Old Persian *Hind-uka ("India").

Further etymology is unknown. While it was reconstructed with a /*tʰ-/ initial, it was frequently compared with tengri, the name for God in early Turkic and Mongolic peoples' languages. This now appears unlikely. The only certain external cognate is the Central Bai (a language closely related to Chinese) word heinl (“sky, heaven”) [xẽ⁵⁵].

Pronunciation[edit]

Note:
  • thiⁿ - vernacular;
  • thian - literary.
Note:
  • tin1 - vernacular;
  • tiêng1/tiang1 - literary.
Rime
Character 天
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 透 (6)
Final (韻) 先 (85)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) IV
Fanqie 他前切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /tʰen/
Pan
Wuyun		 /tʰen/
Shao
Rongfen		 /tʰɛn/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /tʰɛn/
Li
Rong		 /tʰen/
Wang
Li		 /tʰien/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /tʰien/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 tiān
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 天 天
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 tiān xiān
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ then › ‹ xen ›
Old
Chinese		 /*l̥ˤi[n]/ /*l̥ˤi[n]/ (W dialect: l̥ˤ- > Hàn-time *xˤ- > MC x-)
English heaven heaven

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 天
Reading # 1/1
No. 12387
Phonetic
component		 天
Rime
group		 眞
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 天
Old
Chinese		 /*qʰl'iːn/

Definitions[edit]

天

  1. sky; heavens; heavenly; celestial
    • 天空  ―  tiānkōng  ―  sky
    天黑了。  ―  Tiān hēi le.  ―  It's getting dark.
  2. (mythology or religion) heaven as the abode of the gods or the blessed departed; heavenly.
    • 上天  ―  shàngtiān  ―  to go up to the sky; to go to heaven
    • 天意  ―  tiānyì  ―  Heaven's will
  3. (mythology or religion) Heaven as an impersonal deity, often translated as God.
    • 天主  ―  tiānzhǔ  ―  God
    • 老天  ―  lǎotiān  ―  god
    • 我的天啊！  ―  Wǒ de tiān a!  ―  Oh my God!
    • 天助自助者。  ―  Tiān zhù zì zhù zhě.  ―  God helps those who help themselves.
  4. top; overhead
    • 天橋 / 天桥  ―  tiānqiáo  ―  footbridge
    • 天窗  ―  tiānchuāng  ―  sunroof
  5. weather; climate
  6. day (24 hours)
    今天  ―  jīntiān  ―  today
    明天  ―  míngtiān  ―  tomorrow
    三天  ―  sān tiān  ―  three days
  7. † day (as opposed to night)
    白天  ―  báitiān  ―  daytime
  8. † season
  9. nature
    • 天災 / 天灾  ―  tiānzāi  ―  natural disaster
  10. natural; innate
    • 天生  ―  tiānshēng  ―  innate
    • 天性  ―  tiānxìng  ―  nature, personality
    • 天才  ―  tiāncái  ―  genius

Synonyms[edit]

Dialectal synonyms of 天 (“day (24 hours)”) [map]
Variety Location Words
Classical Chinese 日
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) 日
Mandarin Beijing 天
Taiwan 天
Cantonese Guangzhou 日
Hong Kong 日
Taishan 日
Gan Nanchang 日
Hakka Meixian 日
Miaoli (N. Sixian) 日
Liudui (S. Sixian) 日
Hsinchu (Hailu) 日
Dongshi (Dabu) 日
Zhuolan (Raoping) 日
Yunlin (Zhao'an) 日
Jin Taiyuan 天
Min Dong Fuzhou 日
Min Nan Xiamen 日
Quanzhou 日
Zhangzhou 日
Taipei 工、日
Kaohsiung 工、日
Tainan 工、日
Taichung 日、工
Hsinchu 日、工
Lukang 工、日
Sanxia 工、日
Yilan 工、日
Kinmen 工
Magong 工
Penang 日
Wu Shanghai 日、天
Xiang Changsha 天

Compounds[edit]

Derived terms from 天

Japanese[edit]

Kanji[edit]

天

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. heavens, sky

Readings[edit]

Compounds[edit]

Compounds

Etymology 1[edit]

Kanji in this term
天
あま
Grade: 1
kun’yomi

From Old Japanese. A bound form only appearing in compounds.[1][2] Compare the formation of 目 (ma, bound form in compounds) and 目 (me, standalone form), 手 (ta, bound form in compounds) and 手 (te, standalone form).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

天 (hiragana あま, rōmaji ama)

  1. (archaic) the sky, the heavens
  2. the area above a kitchen stove:
    1. where the smoke collects in an old kitchen using a wood-burning stove
    2. a shelf or shelves above the stove
  3. (archaic) heaven
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms

Etymology 2[edit]

Kanji in this term
天
あめ
Grade: 1
kun’yomi

⟨ame2⟩ → */aməj/ → /ame/

From Old Japanese as a sound shift from ama above.[1] Likely derived by fusion of ama + い (i, emphatic nominative particle), similar to the derivation of other words such as 神 (kami, from kamu + i), 目 (me, from ma + i), etc.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

天 (hiragana あめ, rōmaji ame)

  1. (archaic) the sky, the heavens
  2. (archaic) heaven
  3. (archaic) the roof of a palace
Idioms[edit]
Idioms
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms

Etymology 3[edit]

Kanji in this term
天
てん
Grade: 1
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 天 (MC tʰen, “sky; heavens”). Compare modern Mandarin reading tiān.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

天 (hiragana てん, rōmaji ten)

  1. the sky, the heavens
  2. heaven
  3. (metaphorically) the gods, providence, fate
Idioms[edit]
Idioms
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN

Korean[edit]

Hanja[edit]

天 • (cheon)

  • Eumhun:
    • Sound (hangeul): 천 (revised: cheon, McCune-Reischauer: ch'ŏn)
    • Name (hangeul): 하늘
  1. (하늘 천, haneul cheon) sky; heaven; Godhead; tao; etc.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Compounds[edit]

Vietnamese[edit]

Han character[edit]

  1. sky, heavens
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