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Componential Chinese Characters

As we all know, Chinese characters are composed of the character components. However, when you come tolearn Chinese language in China, teachers would tell you that some components of Chinese character are formed because of the omission of the forms. Some omitted parts are that of the phonetic components while some others are the meaning indicators. The following are some typical examples of this aspect.

In the past, the upper part of星indicated 晶while the lower part was 生 indicating the sound. Later, for the purpose of convenience in writing, 晶was omitted into single 日. The character 尿is also made up of two parts, the upper of which was 尾indicating the part of human body and the down part was水implying the urine. For the same purpose, it was simplified as 尿we use today.

The original meaning of 酥was 酥油 (butter) because the left 酉showing that 酥 had something to do with brewing while the right was 酥 which reflects the pronunciation. But when 酥 is functioned as phonetic complement, 鱼was omitted with 禾 remained. Students may often see 炊 when they learn Chinese online free with the original meaning of cooking by making fire. 火shows that 炊is related to 火 and 吹 indicating pronunciation was omitted as 欠 to form 炊.

The components of some simplified characters are also formed because of the forms omission like 盘 from 盤, the upper of which indicated the sound and the lower meant household utensils. Another kind of situation that the students who learn Mandarin in China should know is that some components were from the componential characters, mainly phonetic complement characters. For example, the right side of 鸿 is 鸟, the meaning indicator while the left 江is phonetic components. But the氵of 鸿 was brought by the phonetic indicator 江.

Another character frequently used might be 腾 with the original meaning of horse leaping. The 马on the bottom right is meaning indicator while the phonetic component is 朕. And the part 月of 腾 is taken together with 朕. As a matter of fact, there are many other characters of this type like 随, 慕and 载. Knowing this point is helpful for the learners to study Chinese characters.

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