Lesson 07 儿 the two-legged form
Lesson 07 儿 the two-legged form
We are going to learn some new words with this component ㄦ, which I call it as the two-legged form, since it looks like two legs of an object. In this lesson we will learn some other words with this two-legged form 儿, like 元, 光, 兄, and 兒.
About the symbol 儿, it’s just an element of some traditional Chinese characters, yet it is also the simplified Chinese symbol ㄦ for the word “son, child.”
儿
son, child
pronunciation: Ér
simplified Chinese
There are only two curved strokes within this symbol ㄦ, start from the left stroke, drawing from top to bottom as the animation shown, then draw the left stroke, it looks like a hook, please follow the strokes movement in the animation carefully, we are going to do lots of this kind of hook-like part while writing Chinese characters.
This two-legged form ㄦ is like a child running back and forth between his parents. In the animation, the simplified symbol 儿 will turn to the traditional symbol 兒 (son, child) for a short while. This 兒 symbol is much complicated for writing, also used as son, child (either son or daughter), and we will learn to write it as well at the end of this lesson.
元
first, primary
pronunciation: Yuán
This 元 (first, primary) is a good word, it’s the combination of two horizontal bars 二 (please check Lesson 01) and the two-legged form ㄦ.
Do you know the Yuan Dynasty? The Yuan is 元, and Yuan Dynasty officially is called the Great Yuan 大元, the combination of 大 (big, great, please check Lesson 06) and 元 (primary, start), Great Yuan 大元 was the empire (ruling dynasty) of China (1271-1368) established by Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan.
兄
elder brother
pronunciation: Xiōng
This 兄 symbol is the combination a square 口 plus the two-legged form ㄦ. Please check Lesson 04 for the writing of the symbol 口.
Imagine this symbol 兄, it means “elder brother” in Chinese. It’s like an elder son standing there, with a (square) porker face appeared some kind of serious manner, that’s the elder brother 兄 should behave in ancient China. (Did Confucius say so?)
光
light
pronunciation: Guāng
This symbol 光 (light) is not hard to write, please look at the animation and observe the order of writing the top three strokes. The standard way is drawing the middle one first, from top to bottom, then drawing the left stroke, then the right stroke. Why? I think this is for the balance of the whole character. I had been taught to write in this way since I was very young.
Well, the top three strokes are symbolized as the rays of lights, on a pictograph table 兀, then we have the light 光. Oops! sorry about my imagination again, I used to be a fiction writer in traditional Chinese, not an instructor of elementary Chinese lessons, especially writing blogger in non-native English.
兒
son, child
pronunciation: Ér
traditional Chinese
This is the traditional Chinese symbol for 兒, used as son, child (can be son or daughter). As shown in the animation, it’s an advanced handwriting strokes practice so for, the top part is the symbol 臼 (mortar) which is the element of some Chinese words, and we should learn it by the way.
臼
mortar
pronunciation: Jiù
In order to improve your skill of Chinese handwriting, so I create the animation for this 臼 (mortar) symbol. The order of strokes is a little bit complicated, please feel free to practice yourself.
There are few Chinese words contain this 臼 (mortar) element, such as 舀 (ladle out, spoon up), 舅 (maternal uncle), and 舂 (to pound, pestle). Don’t think these words look so complicated, they are all the same in both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Traditional Chinese characters are the original Chinese characters for over 2000 years which have been used throughout Chinese history, right up until the late 20th century. People in Taiwan and Hong Kong are still using the traditional Chinese characters today. But the simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China since 1950s.
In the 1950s and 60s the mainland Chinese government simplified a lot of the characters to make them less complicated to read and quicker to write because there was a problem of illiteracy at that time. Some simplified characters might lose the original symbolic meanings of components which the traditional characters were created thousands years ago. You still need the knowledge to read traditional Chinese characters then you won’t miss the appreciation of classic Chinese calligraphic arts and literatures.
Thanks for your reading and practicing, any feedback is welcome.
Review and further study
儿
son, child
pronunciation: Ér
simplified Chinese
兒
son, child
traditional Chinese
pronunciation: Ér
with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…
兄
elder brother
pronunciation: Xiōng
with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…
光
light
pronunciation: Guāng
with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…
臼
mortar
pronunciation: Jiù
with pronunciation play button, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…
Comments
Post a Comment