蔡

Translingual

Han character

蔡 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+11, 14 strokes, cangjie input 廿月人火 (TBOF), four-corner 4490₁, composition ⿱艹祭)

Derived characters

• 攃 櫒 礤

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1055, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 31818
• Dae Jaweon: page 1517, character 17
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3282, character 10
• Unihan data for U+8521

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Chinese

trad.		蔡
simp. #		蔡
alternative forms		𦬁 second round simplified

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 蔡
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Qin slip script	Small seal script

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

	Old Chinese
蔡	*sʰlaːds
瘵	*ʔsreːds
祭	*ʔsreːds, *ʔsleds
際	*ʔsleds
穄	*ʔsleds
鰶	*ʔsleds
傺	*hr'eds
摖	*sʰleːds
擦	*sʰlaːd
攃	*sʰlaːd, *saːd
礤	*sʰlaːd
察	*sʰreːd
詧	*sʰreːd, *sʰeːd

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *sʰlaːds) : semantic 艸 (“vegetation”) + phonetic 祭 (OC *ʔsreːds, *ʔsleds).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): cài (cai⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄘㄞˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): coi³
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): chhai
• Northern Min (KCR): chuo̿i
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): chhòa / chhài

  (Teochew, Peng'im): cua³

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: cài
    • Zhuyin: ㄘㄞˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: cài
    • Wade–Giles: tsʻai⁴
    • Yale: tsài
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tsay
    • Palladius: цай (caj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰaɪ̯⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: coi³
    • Yale: choi
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tsoi³
    • Guangdong Romanization: coi³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰɔːi̯³³/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: chhai
    • Hakka Romanization System: cai
    • Hagfa Pinyim: cai⁴
    • Sinological IPA: /t͡sʰai̯⁵⁵/
• Northern Min
  • (Jian'ou)
    • Kienning Colloquial Romanized: chuo̿i
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰuɛ³³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chhòa / chhài
    • Tâi-lô: tshuà / tshài
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zhoax, zhaix
    • IPA (Xiamen): /t͡sʰua²¹/, /t͡sʰai²¹/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /t͡sʰua⁴¹/, /t͡sʰai⁴¹/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡sʰua²¹/, /t͡sʰai²¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /t͡sʰua¹¹/, /t͡sʰai¹¹/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sʰua²¹/, /t͡sʰai²¹/

Note:

• chhòa - vernacular (including surname);
• chhài - literary.

• (Teochew)
  • Peng'im: cua³
  • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: tshuà
  • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰua²¹³/

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• Dialectal data

Variety	Location	edit 蔡
Mandarin	Beijing	/t͡sʰai⁵¹/
	Harbin	/t͡sʰai⁵³/
	Tianjin	/t͡sʰai⁵³/
	Jinan	/t͡sʰɛ²¹/
	Qingdao	/t͡sʰɛ⁴²/
	Zhengzhou	/t͡sʰai³¹²/
	Xi'an	/t͡sʰai⁴⁴/
	Xining	/t͡sʰɛ²¹³/
	Yinchuan	/t͡sʰɛ¹³/
	Lanzhou	/t͡sʰɛ¹³/
	Ürümqi	/t͡sʰai²¹³/
	Wuhan	/t͡sʰai³⁵/
	Chengdu	/t͡sʰai¹³/
	Guiyang	/t͡sʰai²¹³/
	Kunming	/t͡sʰæ²¹²/
	Nanjing	/t͡sʰae⁴⁴/
	Hefei	/t͡sʰe̞⁵³/
Jin	Taiyuan	/t͡sʰai⁴⁵/
	Pingyao	/t͡sʰæ³⁵/
	Hohhot	/t͡sʰɛ⁵⁵/
Wu	Shanghai	/t͡sʰe³⁵/
	Suzhou	/t͡sʰɑ⁵¹³/
	Hangzhou	/t͡sʰe̞⁴⁴⁵/
	Wenzhou	/t͡sʰa⁴²/
Hui	Shexian	/t͡sʰɛ³²⁴/
	Tunxi	/t͡sʰa⁴²/
Xiang	Changsha	/t͡sʰai⁵⁵/
	Xiangtan	/t͡sʰai⁵⁵/
Gan	Nanchang	/t͡sʰai²¹³/
Hakka	Meixian	/t͡sʰai⁵³/
	Taoyuan	/t͡sʰɑi⁵⁵/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/t͡sʰɔi³³/
	Nanning	/t͡sʰɔi³³/
	Hong Kong	/t͡sʰɔi³³/
Min	Xiamen (Hokkien)	/t͡sʰai²¹/ /t͡sʰua²¹/
	Fuzhou (Eastern Min)	/t͡sʰɑi²¹²/
	Jian'ou (Northern Min)	/t͡sʰuɛ³³/
	Shantou (Teochew)	/t͡sʰua²¹³/
	Haikou (Hainanese)	/sai³⁵/ /sua³⁵/

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• Middle Chinese: tshajH

Rime
Character	蔡
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	清 (14)
Final (韻)	泰 (25)
Tone (調)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	倉大切
Baxter	tshajH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/t͡sʰɑiH/
Pan Wuyun	/t͡sʰɑiH/
Shao Rongfen	/t͡sʰɑiH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/t͡sʰajH/
Li Rong	/t͡sʰɑiH/
Wang Li	/t͡sʰɑiH/
Bernard Karlgren	/t͡sʰɑiH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	cài
Expected Cantonese Reflex	coi3

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*s.r̥ˤat-s/

  (Zhengzhang): /*sʰlaːds/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	蔡
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	cài
Middle Chinese	‹ tshajH ›
Old Chinese	/*s.r̥ˁat-s/
English	(name of a state)
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	蔡
Reading #	1/1
No.	5836
Phonetic component	祭
Rime group	祭
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	蔡
Old Chinese	/*sʰlaːds/

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 蔡

1. ^† weed
2. ^† tortoise used for divination
3. (～國) (historical) Cai (an ancient Chinese state)
4. a surname

   蔡英文  ―  Cài Yīngwén  ―  Tsai Ing-wen (President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), 2016-present)

Compounds

Descendants

• → Tagalog: Chua (via Hokkien)

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Japanese

Kanji

蔡

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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Readings

• Go-on: さい (sai)
• Kan-on: さい (sai)
• On: さつ (satsu)
• Kun: あくた (akuta); おとろえる (otoroeru); へらす (herasu)

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Korean

Hanja

蔡 • (chae, sal) (hangeul 채, 살, revised chae, sal, McCune–Reischauer ch'ae, sal, Yale chay, sal)

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

(deprecated template usage) 蔡 (Thái)

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