川

Han character

川 (radical 47, 巛+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 中中中 (LLL), four-corner 2200₀)

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 川
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu Slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Pictogram (象形) – compare 水 (OC *qʰʷljilʔ).

Etymology

The Middle and Old Chinese reconstruction of this word is phonologically problematic (STEDT):

• Karlgren (1957) notes that the Middle Chinese form is irregular based on evidence from Shijing rimes.
• Based on velar contacts in the same phonetic series, e.g. 巛, 甽 and 訓, Baxter (1992) and Schuessler (2007) reconstruct the word with a velar initial (Handel, 1998; Sagart, 1999), which undergoes irregular palatalization in the development to Middle Chinese (Baxter, 1992).
• Based on other characters in the same phonetic series, e.g. 順 and 馴, Sagart (1999), and later, Baxter and Sagart (2014), reconstructs 川 with a lateral initial and suggests that only a *t- suffix would account for the Middle Chinese initial /t͡ɕʰ/.

Schuessler (2007) relates this word to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kl(j)u(ŋ/k) (“river; valley”), whence 江 (OC *kroːŋ, “river”), 谷 (OC *kloːɡ, “valley”), Tibetan ཀླུང (klung, “river”), Burmese ချောင်း (hkyaung:, “stream”). STEDT notes that this does not account for the *-n coda.

STEDT instead compares it to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-t(w)əj-n ~ *m-ti-s (“water; fluid; liquid; river; soak; spit”), whence 涕 (OC *tʰiːlʔ, “tears”), Proto-Kuki-Chin *tuj (“water; fluid; liquid”), Chepang तीः (“water; rain; river”); this depends on a reconstruction with a dental initial and requires positing an *‑n suffix not present in Tibeto-Burman languages.

Pronunciation

Definitions

川

1. river; stream; brook
2. Synonym of 汆 (cuān, “to boil food for a short time in boiled water”).
3. Short for 四川 (Sìchuān, “Sichuan Province, China”).
4. source (of a river)
5. road
6. plain
7. Alternative form of 穿 (chuān).
8. A surname​.

Compounds

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. river

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) かわ​ [kàwáꜜ] (Odaka – [2])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠ɰᵝa̠]
• (Kagoshima) IPA^(key): [ko̞ː]

Noun

川 (hiragana かわ, rōmaji kawa, historical hiragana かは)

1. river, stream, brook

Suffix

川 (hiragana かわ, rōmaji -kawa, historical hiragana かは)

1. the ... river, used in named of rivers or streams

川 (hiragana がわ, rōmaji -gawa, historical hiragana がは)

1. the ... river

References

Hanja

川 (eumhun 내 천 (nae cheon))

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

Han character

川 (xuyên, xiên)

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