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Definition 2024

海

海

Translingual

Shinjitai 海
Simplified 海
Traditional 海

Alternative forms

Appears with 母 (2 dots) in Chinese, yielding 海, but with simplified form 毋 (1 cross stroke) in Japanese shinjitai, yielding 海 = 氵 + 毎. These are however encoded with the same Unicode character – see Han unification.

Stroke order

Han character

海 (radical 85 水+7 in Chinese, 水+6 in Japanese, in Chinese 10 strokes, in Japanese 9 strokes, cangjie input 水人田卜 (EOWY), four-corner 38157, composition ⿰氵每)

References

  • KangXi: page 625, character 14
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17450
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1023, character 11
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 1627, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+6D77

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 海

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 海
Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (母) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
脢 *mɯːs, *mɯː, *mɯːs
挴 *mlɯːʔ, *mɯːʔ
海 *hmlɯːʔ
毐 *ʔmɯː, *ʔmɯːʔ
呣 *mɯ
拇 *mɯʔ
母 *mɯʔ
胟 *mɯʔ
姆 *mɯʔ, *mɯs, *maːʔ
畮 *mɯʔ
踇 *mɯʔ
苺 *mɯs, *mɯːʔ, *mɯːs
莓 *mɯs, *mɯː, *mɯːs
敏 *mrɯʔ, *mrɯŋʔ
鰵 *mrɯŋʔ
慜 *mrɯŋʔ
毋 *ma
梅 *mɯː
酶 *mɯː
鋂 *mɯː
每 *mɯːʔ
毎 *mɯːs
痗 *mɯːs, *hmɯːs
晦 *hmɯːs
誨 *hmɯːs
悔 *hmɯːʔ, *hmɯːs
霉 *mrɯl

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *hmlɯːʔ) : semantic 氵 ‎(“water”) + phonetic 每 ‎(OC *mɯːʔ).

Etymology

Probably related to 晦 (OC *hmɯːs, “dark”); in numerous Zhou texts 海 is described as 晦 (Schuessler, 2007).

Compare the parallelism in Chinese: 溟 (OC *meːŋ, *meːŋʔ, “ocean”) < 冥 (OC *meːŋ, “dark”).

Pronunciation

  • Dialectal data▼
Variety Location 海
Mandarin Beijing /xai²¹⁴/
Harbin /xai²¹³/
Tianjin /xai¹³/
Jinan /xɛ⁵⁵/
Qingdao /xɛ⁵⁵/
Zhengzhou /xai⁵³/
Xi'an /xai⁵³/
Xining /xɛ⁵³/
Yinchuan /xɛ⁵³/
Lanzhou /xɛ⁴⁴²/
Ürümqi /xai⁵¹/
Wuhan /xai⁴²/
Chengdu /xai⁵³/
Guiyang /xai⁴²/
Kunming /xæ⁵³/
Nanjing /xae²¹²/
Hefei /xe̞²⁴/
Jin Taiyuan /xai⁵³/
Pingyao /xæ⁵³/
Hohhot /xɛ⁵³/
Wu Shanghai /he³⁵/
Suzhou /he̞⁵¹/
Hangzhou /he̞⁵³/
Wenzhou /he³⁵/
Hui Shexian /xɛ³⁵/
Tunxi /xuə³¹/
Xiang Changsha /xai⁴¹/
Xiangtan /xai⁴²/
Gan Nanchang /hai²¹³/
Hakka Meixian /hoi³¹/
Taoyuan /hoi³¹/
Cantonese Guangzhou /hɔi³⁵/
Nanning /hɔi³⁵/
Hong Kong /hɔi³⁵/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /hai⁵³/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /hai³²/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /xuɛ²¹/
Shantou (Min Nan) /hai⁵³/
Haikou (Min Nan) /hai²¹³/
Rime
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 曉 (32)
Final (韻) 咍 (41)
Tone (調) Rising (X)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) I
Fanqie 呼改切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /hʌiX/
Pan
Wuyun		 /həiX/
Shao
Rongfen		 /xɒiX/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /həjX/
Li
Rong		 /xᴀiX/
Wang
Li		 /xɒiX/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /xɑ̆iX/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 hǎi
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 hǎi
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ xojX ›
Old
Chinese		 /*m̥ˤəʔ/ (dialect *m̥ˤ- > x-)
English sea

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
No. 9283
Phonetic
component		 母
Rime
group		 之
Rime
subdivision		 0
Corresponding
MC rime		 海
Old
Chinese		 /*hmlɯːʔ/

Definitions

海

  1. sea; ocean
  2. big lake
  3. overseas; abroad
  4. (figuratively) sea; abundance; infiniteness
  5. (regional) profuse; numerous
  6. unrestrainedly; randomly; casually
  7. A surname​. Hai (mainland China, Taiwan), Hoi (Hong Kong)

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

海

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. sea
  2. ocean

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
海
うみ
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

From Old Japanese.

May derive from a compound of う ‎(u, stem indicating “ocean”; compare 魚 ‎(uo, “fish”), 潮 ‎(ushio, “salt water”)) + 水 ‎(mi, “water”).

Pronunciation

Noun

海 ‎(hiragana うみ, romaji umi)

  1. sea, ocean
Usage notes

This is the most common general term in modern Japanese for sea or ocean.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
海
わた
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

From Old Japanese.

May be related to Goguryeo 波旦 ‎(padan). Possibly cognate with Korean 바다 ‎(bada, “ocean, sea”).

Pronunciation

Noun

海 ‎(hiragana わた, romaji wata)

  1. (obsolete) sea, ocean
Derived terms

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
海
み
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Either cognate with 水 ‎(mi, “water”), or an abbreviation of umi above.

Pronunciation

Noun

海 ‎(hiragana み, romaji mi)

  1. (obsolete) sea, ocean
Derived terms

References

  1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
  • 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan

Korean

Hanja

海 • ‎(hae) (hangeul 해, McCune-Reischauer hae, Yale hay)

  1. sea, ocean

Compounds

Mulam

Noun

海 ‎(hai3)

  1. sea

Vietnamese

Han character

海 (hải, hẩy, hấy)

  1. sea, ocean

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