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Basics

Introduction to Chinese Characters​

• Word Etymologies
  
• Why should you learn etymology? By understanding the basis of where the word came from, it is a lot easier to understand the meaning and remember how to write it. For the intents and purposes of this lesson, the words will be written in Traditional form. 
  
  • Pictographs (象形 xiàng xíng: literally "similar shape")
    • ​Drawings of objects they represent (use your imagination)
      
    • Examples: 馬, 木, 火 (horse, wood, fire)
  • Ideographs (指事 zhǐ shì)
    • Abstract characters expressed as a character
    • Examples:　上, 下　(Up, Down)
  • Compound Ideographs (會意 huì yì:)
    • A character composed of 2 or more pictographs or ideographs
      
    • Example: 看- to look, to see　(Combines the pictographs of a hand over an eye)
  • Phono-semantic Compounds (形聲 xíng shēng: literally "Shape sound")
    • The most common type of word. It combines a character that provides pronunciation with a "radical", a kind fo word 'root' to give it meaning
    • Example: 麵- flour (Combines the meaning of 麥, wheat, with the sound of 面 to form the word)
  • Phonetic loan (假借 jiǎ jiè)
    • A character that borrows its sound from one word and meaning from another
    • Example: 沙- sand (Borrows sound from 少,  "little", and derives its meaning from the 氵radical that indicates water)
  • Derivative Cognates (轉注 zhuǎn zhù )
    • ​Words that have the same roots but have been changed to have different meanings.
      
    • Example: 考- to test    and  老- old, both have the same roots as meaning "old" in ancient Chinese, but have been changed to mean different things now. 
• Resources: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-dictionary.php  is great for explaining words and discovering how each word was formed.

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