hard to find character

[Pedroski 17]

Anyone know this character? Meaning and pronounciation? I can't even display it in my Linux, so I posted the png. It is a question from stackexchange.

 

You can find usage examples here: http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&char=%F0%A6%A8%BB

[Hofmann 681]

It's an Extension B character. You need an Extension B font.

[陳德聰 1,457]

Judging by the Vietnamese pronunciation, it's probably pronounced "guang".

[ParkeNYU 56]

It is a Chữ Nôm meaning 'module' or 'box' (maritime), according to Sky Darmos. He offered these example compounds:

 

～船 khoang tuyền – deck (ship)

～梩 khoang lái – cockpit

～航 khoang hàng – hold (in a ship)

～行李 khoang hành lý – hold (in a plane)

 

From what I know, this character does not exist in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

[imron 4,838]

For reference, if you need to look up hard to find characters the unihan database is a good place to start.

[Will_TW 2]

It's an ancient writing,not used anymore,you can only find in the poetry.

According to the context,it probably has the same meaning as "船"(ship).

[Pedroski 17]

Thanks a lot! Never heard of Chu Nom before! We have a teacher from Vietnam, but she did not recognize the character. I suppose Chu Nom is a special study.

 

And thanks for the unihan link, I've book marked it for future reference. My Chinese bookmarks folder is getting rather large!

[ParkeNYU 56]

The French imperialists abolished characters in Vietnam and forced their own Romanisation scheme on their colonial subjects. Some people, like Sky Darmos, are still literate in Vietnamese mixed script (Hán Nôm 漢喃), which basically uses Chữ Nôm {宁字}喃 for native words and Hán Tự 漢字 for Sino-Vietnamese words (similar to Korean mixed script).

[Pedroski 17]

Dien Bian Phu put a stop to that!

 

Thanks again, really feel I have learnt something!

 

Anyone who wants these fonts and does not have them can download them from sourceforge:

 

sourceforge.net/projects/vietunicode/files/hannom/hannom v2005/

 

If you use Linux, put them in /usr/share/fonts and enter

 

sudo fc-cache -fv on the command line

[realmayo 1,658]

The French imperialists abolished characters in Vietnam and forced their own Romanisation scheme on their colonial subjects

 

is this really true?

[Tiana 84]

 is this really true?

 

Good question!

And no. It's just one of the modern myths

[Hofmann 681]

BTW, Sky Darmos is a quack.

[ParkeNYU 56]

Hofmann, is your 'location' a Team America: World Police reference?