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Definition 2024


Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

(radical 86 +8, 12 strokes, cangjie input 月大火 (BKF), four-corner 23333, composition)

Derived characters

References

  • KangXi: page 675, character 12
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 19149
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1086, character 20
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 2213, character 5
  • Unihan data for U+7136

Chinese

simp. and trad.

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character
Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series () (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
*rneːn
*njen
*njen
*njon, *njen
*njen
*njenʔ, *neːnʔ
*njenʔ, *ʔneːn
*neːnʔ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *njen) : phonetic  (OC *njen, dog meat) + semantic  (fire) – to burn. Also ideogrammic compound (會意) . The derivative (OC *njen) stands for the original word in Modern Chinese.

Note that the upper left component is analyzed as (meat), and in the component it is drawn as a tilted (“moon”), appearing more like (“evening”) with an extra stroke; compare , .

Pronunciation



  • Dialectal data
Variety Location
Mandarin Beijing /ʐan³⁵/
Harbin /ʐan²⁴/
Tianjin /ian⁴⁵/
/ʐan⁴⁵/
Jinan /ʐã⁴²/
Qingdao /iã⁴²/
Zhengzhou /ʐan⁵³/
/ʐan⁴²/ ~而
Xi'an /ʐã²⁴/
Xining /ʐã²⁴/
Yinchuan /ʐan⁵³/
Lanzhou /ʐɛ̃n⁵³/
Ürümqi /ʐan⁵¹/
Wuhan /nan²¹³/
Chengdu /zan³¹/
Guiyang /zan²¹/
Kunming /ʐã̠³¹/
Nanjing /ʐaŋ²⁴/
Hefei /ʐæ̃⁵⁵/
/ʐən⁵⁵/
Jin Taiyuan /zæ̃¹¹/
Pingyao /ʐɑŋ¹³/
Hohhot /ʐæ̃⁵³/
Wu Shanghai /zø²³/
Suzhou /zø¹³/
Hangzhou /zz̩ʷõ²¹³/
Wenzhou /ji³¹/
Hui Shexian /ie⁴⁴/
Tunxi /iɛ⁴⁴/
Xiang Changsha /yẽ¹³/
Xiangtan /iẽ¹²/
Gan Nanchang /lɛn⁴⁵/
Hakka Meixian /ian¹¹/
Taoyuan /ʒen¹¹/
Cantonese Guangzhou /jin²¹/
Nanning /jin²¹/
Hong Kong /jɐn²¹/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /lian³⁵/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /yoŋ⁵³/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /iŋ²¹/
Shantou (Min Nan) /ziaŋ⁵⁵/
Haikou (Min Nan) /zin³¹/

Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1
Initial () (38)
Final () (77)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division () III
Fanqie
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/ȵiᴇn/
Pan
Wuyun
/ȵiɛn/
Shao
Rongfen
/ȵʑjæn/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/ȵian/
Li
Rong
/ȵiɛn/
Wang
Li
/ȵʑĭɛn/
Bernard
Karlgren
/ȵʑi̯ɛn/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
rán
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
rán
Middle
Chinese
‹ nyen ›
Old
Chinese
/*[n]a[n]/
English so, thus; (adv suffix)

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
Reading # 1/1
No. 10756
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
2
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*njen/

Definitions

  1. so; thus; in this manner; like this
    • /    ránhòu   then [lit. after things turn out this way]
    •    rán   or else, otherwise [lit. not so]
  2. Suffix forming adverbs, sometimes also adjectives, with an abstract meaning of “in the manner of, like”.
    • /    xiǎnrán   apparently, obviously
    •    guǒrán   as expected [lit. as a result]
    • 大物 / 大物   pángrándàwù   giant, something enormous [lit. a bigly big thing]
    • 長嘆 / 长叹   kuìránchángtàn   to sigh (with 喟 being an onomatopoeia)
  3. but

Compounds


Japanese

Kanji

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. suffix after nouns to express likeness
  2. so, be as it is
  3. however (as shikashi)
  4. a certain thing

Readings

Compounds

Etymology

Kanji in this term
ぜん
Grade: 4
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese (nyen, -like).

Pronunciation

Suffix

(hiragana ぜん, romaji -zen)

  1. Indicates a state (no specific semantic content)

References

  • Halpern, Jack: New Japanese-English Character Dictionary -Kenkyusha 1990

Korean

Hanja

(yeon) (hangeul , revised yeon, McCune-Reischauer yŏn, Yale yen)

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

(nhiên, nhen, nhơn)

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.