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南

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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南 U+5357, 南
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5357
← 卖
[U+5356] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 単 →
[U+5358]

Translingual

More information Stroke order ...

Han character

南 (Kangxi radical 24, 十+7, 9 strokes, cangjie input 十月廿十 (JBTJ), four-corner 40227, composition ⿵𲓜𢆉)

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 157, character 5
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2750
  • Dae Jaweon: page 357, character 8
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 65, character 2
  • Unihan data for U+5357
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Chinese

More information simp. and trad., 2nd round simp. ...
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Glyph origin

More information Historical forms of the character 南, Shang ...
Characters in the same phonetic series (南) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
More information Old Chinese ...

This character has been explained as a pictogram (象形) of a hanging percussion instrument (bell), originally identical to the left side of 㱿. Under this hypothesis its borrowing for the word “south” is difficult to explain.

Sagart (1988) instead proposes that it is a pictogram of the front of a house. Archaeological evidence confirms that in antiquity, at least in some regions, houses were built to face south.

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-nam (“sky, sun”) (STEDT; Schuessler (2007); Benedict (1972)); the south is traditionally associated with the sun & light, compare 陽 (OC *laŋ, “light, sun-lit south-side of a hill”).

If so, cognate with Tibetan གནམ (gnam, “sky”), ནམ (nam, “night”), Tshangla ngam (“sun, noon, day, sky”), Chepang न्‍याम् (nyam, “sun, sunlight, storm-cloud, weather”).

Alternatively, Sagart (2004) relates this word to Old Chinese *nɨm (revised to *nˤ[ə]m in 2014) "belly, front of the body", further "south" to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-nam (“rib(s)”), as one term for one body-part often shifts its meaning to another body-part nearby.

If so, 南 is cognate with 妊 (OC *njɯms, “to carry inside one's belly → to be pregnant”), 任 (OC *njɯm, *njɯms, “to carry a burden, especially in front of the body”), also 腩 (OC *nuːmʔ, “belly (of an ox)”), Southern Pumi nõ⁵⁵, Burmese နံရိုး (nam-rui:, “side of the body, rib”), and thus is a semantic counterpart to 北 (OC *pɯːɡ, “north”), which is related to 背 (OC *pɯːɡs, *bɯːɡs, “back of the body”).

Pronunciation

Note:
  • lam5 - Chaozhou, Raoping;
  • nam5 - Shantou, Chaoyang, Jieyang;
  • nang5 - Chenghai.
  • Dialectal data
More information Variety, Location ...
More information Rime, Character ...
More information Character, Reading # ...
More information Zhengzhang system (2003), Character ...

Definitions

南

  1. south; southern

Coordinate terms

compass points: 方位 (fāngwèi):  [edit]

西北 (xīběi) 北 東北 / 东北 (dōngběi)
西 (xī) Thumb 東 / 东 (dōng)
西南 (xīnán) 南 東南 / 东南 (dōngnán)

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (南):
  • → Japanese: 南(なん) (nan)
  • → Okinawan: 南(なん) (nan)
  • → Korean: 남(南) (nam)
  • → Vietnamese: nam (南)

Others:

  • → Japanese: 南(ナン) (nan, “south wind (mahjong tile)”)

Compounds

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Definitions

南

  1. only used in 南無／南无 (nāmó)

References

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Japanese

Korean

Okinawan

Old Japanese

Tày

Vietnamese

Yonaguni

Zhuang

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