貝

See also: 贝, 目, 見, 頁, and 員

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

貝 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+0, 7 strokes, cangjie input 月山金 (BUC), four-corner 6080₀, composition ⿱目八)

1. Kangxi radical #154, ⾙.

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/貝

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1204, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36656
• Dae Jaweon: page 1665, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3622, character 1
• Unihan data for U+8C9D

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Chinese

trad.		貝
simp.		贝

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 貝
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

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

	Old Chinese
貝	*paːds
狽	*paːds
鋇	*paːds
浿	*pʰaːds, *pʰreːds
垻	*praːs
敗	*praːds, *braːds
唄	*braːds

Pictogram (象形) – cowry.

Etymology

Cowries were used as money in ancient China (Shell money). Guo (1945) proposes that cowries used by the ancient Chinese dynasties in Central China must have come from the southeastern shores of China and areas further south, as the species of sea snail used as decoration and currency— (money cowry)—is not native to the eastern seashores of China. He further proposes that in addition to the cowry itself, the word for cowry, 貝, is also an ancient loanword from languages of the south (which call it “bia”).

Compare Malay bia (“cowry”), Thai เบี้ย (bîia, “cowry shell; money”), Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɓa(a)j (“bean, small weight or coin”) > Khasi sbâi, 'bâi (“money, cowry, shell”), Khmer ពៃ (pɨy, “obsolete small coin”).

Alternatively, Starostin, Matisoff (2003) and Schuessler (2007) relate 貝 to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bwap (“snail”), via 貝 (OC *paːds) < *pāps. If so it would be cognate with Jingpho pawp, lapawp (“snail”).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): bèi (bei⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄟˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): bui³
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): pi
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): pòe

  (Teochew, Peng'im): buê⁶

• Wu (Wugniu)
  • (Northern): ⁵pe

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: bèi
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄟˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: bèi
    • Wade–Giles: pei⁴
    • Yale: bèi
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: bey
    • Palladius: бэй (bɛj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /peɪ̯⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: bui³
    • Yale: bui
    • Cantonese Pinyin: bui³
    • Guangdong Romanization: bui³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /puːi̯³³/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: pi
    • Hakka Romanization System: bi
    • Hagfa Pinyim: bi⁴
    • Sinological IPA: /pi⁵⁵/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pòe
    • Tâi-lô: puè
    • Phofsit Daibuun: poex
    • IPA (Xiamen): /pue²¹/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /pue⁴¹/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /pue²¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /pue¹¹/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /pue²¹/
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: buê⁶
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: puĕ
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pue³⁵/
• Wu
  • (Shanghai):
    • Wugniu: ⁵pe
    • MiniDict: pe^去
    • Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ²pe
    • Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /pe³⁴/

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• Middle Chinese: pajH

Rime
Character	貝
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	幫 (1)
Final (韻)	泰 (25)
Tone (調)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	愽蓋切
Baxter	pajH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/pɑiH/
Pan Wuyun	/pɑiH/
Shao Rongfen	/pɑiH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/pajH/
Li Rong	/pɑiH/
Wang Li	/pɑiH/
Bernard Karlgren	/pɑiH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	bèi
Expected Cantonese Reflex	bui3

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*pˤa[t]-s/

  (Zhengzhang): /*paːds/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	貝
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	bèi
Middle Chinese	‹ pajH ›
Old Chinese	/*pˁa[t]-s/
English	cowry shell
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	貝
Reading #	1/1
No.	415
Phonetic component	貝
Rime group	祭
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	貝
Old Chinese	/*paːds/

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 貝

1. shellfish; cowrie
2. ^† money; currency
3. a surname

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Japanese

Kanji

貝

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: はい (hai)
• Kan-on: はい (hai)
• Kan’yō-on: ばい (bai)
• Kun: かい (kai, 貝, Jōyō)^{←かひ (kafi, 貝, historical)}

Etymology

Kanji in this term
貝
かい Grade: 1
kun’yomi

/*kapi₁/ → /kaɸi/ → /kawi/ → /kai/

From Old Japanese. Found in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE.

Noun

貝(かい) • (kai) ^{←かひ (kafi)?}

1. a shellfish

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 一(いち)枚(まい)貝(がい) (ichimaigai, “univalve”)
• 貝(かい)合(あ)わせ (kaiawase, “tribadism”)
• 二(に)枚(まい)貝(がい) (nimaigai, “bivalve”)
• 帆(ほ)立(たて)貝(がい) (hotategai, “scallop”)

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Korean

Hanja

貝 (eumhun 조개 패 (jogae pae))

1. Hanja form^? of 패 (“clam, shellfish”).

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Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 貝 (bối, buổi, bói, búi, với, mấy, mới, vuối, thói)

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