traditional phonetic notation; homophonic method
Tone colorsmāmámǎmàma
Meanings
1 sense · 4 examplesnoun
a traditional Chinese phonetic notation method using a familiar character to indicate the pronunciation of a homophonous character
formalOne of the earliest systematic phonetic notation methods in ancient China. The annotator must select a commonly known character that shares the exact same pronunciation (including tone) as the target character. This method fails when no common homophonous character exists.
Gǔ蛊
，
yīn音
gǔ古
。
The character 蛊 is pronounced like the character 古.
Yě冶
，
yīn音
yě也
。
The character 冶 is pronounced like the character 也.
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Gǔ古
rén人
cháng常
yòng用
zhí直
yīn音
fǎ法
wéi为
shēng生
zì字
zhù注
yīn音
。
Ancient scholars often used the direct phonetic method to annotate unfamiliar characters.
Rú如
guǒ果
mǒu某
gè个
zì字
méi没
yǒu有
tóng同
yīn音
zì字
，
jiù就
hěn很
nán难
yòng用
zhí直
yīn音
fǎ法
zhù注
yīn音
。
If a character has no homophonous characters, it is difficult to annotate it using the direct phonetic method.