妹

妹 U+59B9, 妹 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-59B9 ← 妸 [U+59B8] CJK Unified Ideographs 妺 → [U+59BA]

See also: 妺

Translingual

Han character

妹 (radical 38 女+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 女十木 (VJD), four-corner 4549₀, composition ⿰女未)

References

• KangXi: page 257, character 28
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6138
• Dae Jaweon: page 522, character 23
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1034, character 6
• Unihan data for U+59B9

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		妹

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (未) (Zhengzhang, 2003)
	Old Chinese
寐	*mids
魅	*mrɯds
鬽	*mrɯds
昧	*mɯːds
妹	*mɯːds
眛	*maːds, *mɯːds
沬	*maːds, *hmɯːds, *mɯds
未	*mɯds
味	*mɯds
鮇	*mɯds
菋	*mɯds

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *mɯːds): semantic 女 (“female, woman”) + phonetic 未 (OC *mɯds).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): mèi (mei⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄟˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): mui⁶, mui^6-1, mui^6-2
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): moi
• Min Dong (BUC): muói
• Min Nan

  (Hokkien, POJ): bē / bēr / māi / mōe / běr / bōe / mūi / moāi

  (Teochew, Peng'im): muê⁶

• Wu (Wiktionary): me (T3)

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: mèi
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄟˋ
    • Wade-Giles: mei⁴
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: mey
    • IPA ^(key): /meɪ̯⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: mui⁶, mui^6-1, mui^6-2
    • Yale: muih, mūi, múi
    • Cantonese Pinyin: mui⁶, mui^6-1, mui^6-2
    • Guangdong Romanization: mui⁶, mui¹, mui²
    • IPA ^(key): /muːi̯²²/, /muːi̯²²⁻⁵⁵/, /muːi̯²²⁻³⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: moi
    • Hakka Romanization System: moi
    • Hagfa Pinyim: moi⁴
    • IPA: /mo̯i⁵⁵/
• Min Dong
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: muói
    • IPA ^(key): /muɔi²¹³/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Taipei, Magong, Hsinchu)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bē
    • Tâi-lô: bē
    • Phofsit Daibuun: be
    • IPA (Xiamen): /be²²/
    • IPA (Taipei): /be³³/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou, Sanxia, Kinmen, Hsinchu)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bēr
    • Tâi-lô: bēr
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /bə⁴¹/
    • IPA (Kinmen): /bə²²/
  • (Hokkien: Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: māi
    • Tâi-lô: māi
    • Phofsit Daibuun: mai
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /mãɪ²²/
  • (Hokkien: Kaohsiung, Tainan, Yilan, Taichung)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: mōe
    • Tâi-lô: muē
    • Phofsit Daibuun: moe
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /muẽ³³/
  • (Hokkien: Lukang)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: běr
    • Tâi-lô: běr
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bōe
    • Tâi-lô: buē
    • Phofsit Daibuun: boe
    • IPA (Xiamen): /bue²²/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: mūi
    • Tâi-lô: muī
    • Phofsit Daibuun: mui
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /muĩ⁴¹/
  • (Hokkien: Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: moāi
    • Tâi-lô: muāi
    • Phofsit Daibuun: moai
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /muãi²²/

Note:

• Xiamen:
  • bē - vernacular;
  • bōe - literary.
• Quanzhou:
  • bēr - vernacular;
  • mūi - literary.
• Zhangzhou:
  • māi - vernacular;
  • moāi - literary.

• (Teochew)
  • Peng'im: muê⁶
  • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: muĕ
  • IPA ^(key): /mue³⁵/

• Wu
  • (Shanghainese)
    • Wiktionary: me (T3)
    • IPA ^(key): /me̞²³/

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• Middle Chinese: /muʌi^H/▼

Rime
Character	妹
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	明 (4)
Final (韻)	灰 (42)
Tone (調)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Closed
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	莫佩切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/muʌiH/
Pan Wuyun	/muoiH/
Shao Rongfen	/muɒiH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/mwəjH/
Li Rong	/muᴀiH/
Wang Li	/muɒiH/
Bernard Karlgren	/muɑ̆iH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	mèi

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*C.mˤə[t]-s/

  (Zhengzhang): /*mɯːds/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	妹
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	mèi
Middle Chinese	‹ mwojH ›
Old Chinese	/*C.mˤə[t]-s/
English	younger sister
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	妹
Reading #	1/1
No.	12914
Phonetic component	未
Rime group	隊
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	妹
Old Chinese	/*mɯːds/

Definitions

妹

1. younger sister

Compounds

Derived terms from 妹

• 乾妹妹／干妹妹
• 令妹
• 伊妹 (yīmèi)
• 伊妹兒／伊妹儿 (yīmèir, “(humorous, obsolete) email”)
• 你妹 (nǐmèi, “(Mandarin) my arse”)
• 兄妹
• 兄弟姐妹 (xiōngdì jiěmèi, “brothers and sisters”)
• 內妹／内妹
• 十姊妹
• 嘉麗妹妹／嘉丽妹妹
• 堂妹 (tángmèi)
• 堂姊妹
• 大陸妹／大陆妹
• 太妹
• 女妹
• 妹丈 (mèizhàng)
• 妹夫 (mèifū)
• 妹妹 (mèimèi, “younger sister”)

• 妹婿 (mèixù)
• 妹子 (mèizi)
• 妹紙／妹纸 (mèizhǐ)
• 妻姊妹婚
• 姊妹 (zǐmèi, “sisters”)
• 姊妹市
• 姊妹校
• 姊妹盟
• 姊妹行
• 姐妹 (jiěmèi, “sisters”)
• 姐妹花
• 姨妹
• 小妹 (xiǎomèi, “(Min Nan) younger sister”)
• 師妹／师妹 (shīmèi)
• 弟妹 (dìmèi)
• 手帕姊妹
• 架妹 (jiàmèi)
• 歸妹／归妹 (guīmèi)

• 祭妹文
• 細妹／细妹 (“(dialectal) younger sister”)
• 老姐妹兒／老姐妹儿
• 胞妹
• 胞姊妹
• 花小妹
• 蘇小妹／苏小妹
• 蜆妹／蚬妹
• 表妹 (biǎomèi)
• 表姐妹
• 辣妹 (làmèi, “hot babe”)
• 酷妹
• 鍾馗嫁妹／钟馗嫁妹
• 阿妹 (āmèi, “(Wu) younger sister”)
• 香火姊妹
• 鬼妹 (guǐmèi, “(Cantonese) a Caucasian girl”)
• 鹹水妹／咸水妹 (xiánshuǐmèi)

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Japanese

Kanji

妹

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: め (me); まい (mai, Jōyō)
• Kan’on: ばい (bai)
• Kun: いもうと (imōto, 妹, Jōyō); いも (imo, 妹)

Etymology 1

/imo1/ → /imo/. The medial /m/ means "woman, female" and is found in a number of related terms: me, onna, megami, omina, omo etc.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) い​も [íꜜmò] (Atamadaka - [1])
• IPA^(key): [imo̞]

Noun

妹 (hiragana いも, rōmaji imo)

1. a close female companion; a sister or wife

Derived terms

• 妹 (imōto)

Etymology 2

妹 (imo1) + person (hi1to2): /imopitə/ → /imoɸito/ → /imowito/ → /imouto/ → /imoːto/.

Pronunciation

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) いもうと​ [ìmóótóꜜ] (Odaka - [4])
  • IPA^(key): [imo̞ːto̞]

Noun

妹 (hiragana いもうと, rōmaji imōto)

1. one's own younger sister
2. a younger female

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Korean

Hanja

妹 • (mae) (hangeul 매)

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

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Vietnamese

Han character

妹 (muội)

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