形声

See also: 形聲

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 形声 – see 形聲 (“phonosemantic compounding”). (This term is the simplified form of 形聲).

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

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Japanese

Kanji in this term
形	声
けい Grade: 2	せい Grade: 2
on'yomi

Alternative spelling
形聲 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

From Middle Chinese compound 形聲 (MC heng syeng, literally “form, shape + sound”).

The kan'on, so likely a borrowing from later in the history of Middle Chinese.

Noun

1. One of the types of Han characters, containing those characters comprising a part that indicates the meaning, and a part that indicates the pronunciation.

See also

• 六書(りくしょ) (rikusho): The six types of Han characters
  • 指(し)事(じ) (shiji): ideogram
  • 象(しょう)形(けい) (shōkei): pictogram
  • 形(けい)声(せい) (keisei): phono-semantic compound
  • 会(かい)意(い) (kaī): compound ideograph
  • 転(てん)注(ちゅう) (tenchū): derivative cognate
  • 仮(か)借(しゃ) (kasha): phonetic loan

References

• Kitahara, Yasuo, editor (2002), 明鏡国語辞典 [Meikyō Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Taishūkan Shoten, →ISBN