Yuanzi - Fenzi, Meaning - Sound

Please read my last post about “Hanzi, Yuanzi and Fenzi”.

1) Sound Loan

Often (but not always!) Fenzi imply the pronunciation of a Hanzi.

For example, the following Hanzi all contain the Fenzi 喿(sao4 - chirping of birds).
Note that these Hanzi’s prounounciation are very similar to “sao4” (proununciation of喿):

噪 (chirp; zao4) = 口(mouth) + 喿(sao4 - chirping of birds)
澡 (bath; zao3) = 氵(water [variant of 水]) + 喿(sao4 - chirping of birds)
燥 (dry; zao4) = 火(fire) + 喿(sao4 - chirping of birds)
躁 (impatient; zao4) = 足(foot) + 喿(sao4 - chirping of birds)
操 (grasp; operate; cao1) = 扌(hand [variant of手]) + 喿(sao4 - chirping of birds)

2) Meaning Loan

The Yuanzi which is outside of the Fenzi often (but not always!) imply the meaning of the Hanzi.

噪 (chirp; zao4) = chirping with the “mouth” (口) (or neb…)
澡 (bath; zao3) = bathing in water (氵)
燥 (dry; zao4) = to dry something at a fire (火) place
躁 (impatient; zao4) = tapping the feet (足) while being impatient
操 (grasp; operate; cao1) = to crasp or operate with hands (扌)

3) Conclusion

Over 90 per cent of Hanzi are build up by a sound loan (1 Fenzi) and a meaning loan (1 Yuanzi)
So it’s really useful to learn the meaning of Yuanzi and the pronunciation of Fenzi!

4) Link

Read about "Phono-semantic compound characters" in the Wikipedia article about "Chinese character classification".