Jan Finster Posted January 17, 2022 at 09:35 AM Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 at 09:35 AM I should not have looked this up, but now it is too late... I never really looked into character components in any detail, but my vague understanding was that phonetic components of chinese characters give you a clue regarding the pronunciation. E.g. the component 马 is found in 吗,玛,码,蚂,犸 and they all have the same pronunciation "ma3". But, 保 (as in 保护) apparently has the phonetic component of 呆 (dāi — dull, simple, stupid). Why is it pronounced bao3 then? Equally, other characters that contain the 呆 (dāi) component are pronounced bao: 褒 bāo — to cite; to honor, to praise; to recommend 葆 bǎo — dense foliage; to cover, to conceal; to preserve 煲 bāo — to heat, to boil; saucepan (Source: https://www.tofulearn.com/dictionary/chinese/保) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alantin Posted January 17, 2022 at 11:57 AM Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 at 11:57 AM 堡 in 汉堡 and 堡城 is also pronounced "bao3" and at least Purple Culture dictionary gives "保" as one of the components (phonetic component?). 保 [ bǎo ] to safeguard, to protect, to defend, to care for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alantin Posted January 17, 2022 at 12:01 PM Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 at 12:01 PM It seems that the bao3 reading is related to the character's original meaning "an adult carrying a child on their back". With that in mind, the reading makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan Finster Posted January 17, 2022 at 12:27 PM Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 at 12:27 PM On 1/17/2022 at 1:01 PM, alantin said: It seems that the bao3 reading is related to the character's original meaning "an adult carrying a child on their back". With that in mind, the reading makes sense. Thanks, now this makes sense?, but does not make it any easier unless I want to look them all up in Outlier ? This site does not even mention 呆 (dāo), but just simply lists 保 as phonetic component (https://hanzicraft.com/lists/phonetic-sets) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alantin Posted January 17, 2022 at 12:58 PM Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 at 12:58 PM I have the outlier dictionary but I haven't used it a lot. Maybe I'll start collecting characters that I find difficult and look them up sometimes. I don't see use in checking every character, but when something comes up, it is insanely useful. I doubt I'll have trouble with 呆 or 保 after now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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