In Mandarin Chinese, 我 (Pinyin: wǒ 🔊) is a pronoun meaning “I”, “me”, “my”, or “self”, or (in literary or formal use) “we”, “us”, or “our”. You’d think this word, common as it is, should be among the easiest to write. Wrong.
According to Wiktionary, this character is
a pictogram of a rake-like tool or weapon (note the oracle bone script form) <...> It was already borrowed for sound to mean “I” since the oracle bone script. Folk etymology considers it to be an ideograph of a hand (手) holding a weapon (戈) to protect oneself.
Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:
The relevant oracle bone form of this character is a variant of 戈 spear/halberd, indicating a weapon/knife with a serrated blade (i.e., a blade the teeth of which are in alignment).
The Uncle Hanzi’s page shows the evolution of the pictogram from “rake” to its current form.
More photos related to hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.
No comments:
Post a Comment