妹

See also: 妺
妹 U+59B9, 妹
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-59B9
← 妸
[U+59B8] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 妺 →
[U+59BA]

Translingual

Han character

妹 (radical 38, 女+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 女十木 (VJD), four-corner 45490, composition ⿰女未)

Stroke order

References

  • KangXi: page 257, character 28
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6138
  • Dae Jaweon: page 522, character 23
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1034, character 6
  • Unihan data for U+59B9

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 妹

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (未) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
寐 *mids
魅 *mrɯds
鬽 *mrɯds
昧 *mɯːds
妹 *mɯːds
眛 *maːds, *mɯːds
沬 *maːds, *hmɯːds, *mɯds
未 *mɯds
味 *mɯds
鮇 *mɯds
菋 *mɯds

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *mɯːds) : semantic 女 (“female, woman”) + phonetic 未 (OC *mɯds).

Pronunciation

Note:
  • Xiamen:
    • bē - vernacular;
    • bōe - literary.
  • Quanzhou:
    • bēr - vernacular;
    • mūi - literary.
  • Zhangzhou:
    • māi - vernacular;
    • moāi - literary.
Rime
Character 妹
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 明 (4)
Final (韻) 灰 (42)
Tone (調) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Closed
Division (等) I
Fanqie 莫佩切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /muʌiH/
Pan
Wuyun		 /muoiH/
Shao
Rongfen		 /muɒiH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /mwəjH/
Li
Rong		 /muᴀiH/
Wang
Li		 /muɒiH/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /muɑ̆iH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 mèi
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 妹
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 mèi
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ mwojH ›
Old
Chinese		 /*C.mˤə[t]-s/
English younger sister

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 妹
Reading # 1/1
No. 12914
Phonetic
component		 未
Rime
group		 隊
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 妹
Old
Chinese		 /*mɯːds/

Definitions

妹

  1. younger sister

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

妹

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
妹
いも
Grade: 2
kun’yomi

⟨imo1⟩ → /imo/

From Old Japanese.

The medial /-m-/ means "woman, female", found in a number of related terms such as 女 (me, onna, “woman”), 嫗 (omina, “elderly woman”), and 母 (omo, “mother”, archaic).

Pronunciation

Noun

妹 (hiragana いも, rōmaji imo)

  1. (archaic, usually from a male's viewpoint) a close female companion
    1. one's sister
    2. one's lover
    3. one's wife
  2. (archaic, usually from a female's viewpoint) a woman
Antonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

⟨imo(1) pi1to2⟩ → */imopitə/ → /imofito/ → /imowito/ → */imowuto/ /imoːto/

Originally a compound of 妹 (imo, close female companion) + 人 (hito, “person”).[2][3]

The shift from /imofito/ → /imoːto/ is an instance of ウ音便 (u onbin, “u sound shift”), found in terms with bilabial consonants (/m/, /b/, /w/) followed by i; commonly seen in terms such as 玄人 (kurōto, “professional”), 素人 (shirōto, “amateur”), or possibly, 相撲 (sumō, “sumo”).

Pronunciation

Noun

妹 (hiragana いもうと, rōmaji imōto)

  1. one's own younger sister
    Antonym: 姉 (ane)
  2. the wife of one's younger brother; one's sister-in-law
    Synonym: 義妹 (gimai)
  3. a younger female
Derived terms

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
妹
いもと
Grade: 2
kun’yomi

/imopitə/ → */imoputə/ → */imobutə/ → */imomutə/ → */imontə/ → /imoto/

Likely a variant shift from derived compound 妹 (imo, close female companion) + 人 (hito, “person”), appears in The Tale of Heiji, written around the mid-12th century.

Noun

妹 (hiragana いもと, rōmaji imoto)

  1. one's own younger sister
    Antonym: 姉 (ane)
  2. the wife of one's younger brother; one's sister-in-law
    Synonym: 義妹 (gimai)
  3. a younger female

Proper noun

妹 (hiragana いもと, rōmaji Imoto)

  1. a place name

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
妹
まい
Grade: 2
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 妹 (MC muʌiH).

Proper noun

妹 (hiragana まい, rōmaji Mai)

  1. a female given name.

References

  1. 1 2 1974, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Second Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō
  2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ↑ 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  4. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  5. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN

Korean

Hanja

妹 • (mae) (hangeul 매)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

妹 (muội)

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