左

左 U+5DE6, 左
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5DE6
← 工
[U+5DE5] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 巧 →
[U+5DE7]

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

左 (radical 48, 工+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 大一 (KM), four-corner 40011, composition ⿸𠂇工)

Descendants

References

  • KangXi: page 325, character 8
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8720
  • Dae Jaweon: page 626, character 7
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 411, character 5
  • Unihan data for U+5DE6

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 左

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 左
Shang Western Zhou Warring States Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Chu Slip and silk script Qin slip script Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
Characters in the same phonetic series (左) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
左 *ʔsaːlʔ, *ʔsaːls
佐 *ʔsaːls
袏 *ʔslaːls
蹉 *sʰlaːl
瑳 *sʰlaːl, *sʰlaːlʔ
搓 *sʰlaːl
磋 *sʰlaːl
溠 *sʰlaːl, *sraːl, *ʔsraːls
傞 *sʰlaːl, *slaːl
醝 *zlaːl
瘥 *zlaːl, *ʔsljal, *sʰreːls
鹺 *zlaːl
嵯 *zlaːl, *sʰral
嵳 *zlaːl
蒫 *zlaːl, *ʔsljal, *ʔslɯl
艖 *zlaːl, *sʰraːl
齹 *zlaːl, *sʰral, *zral
縒 *slaːlʔ, *sʰral, *sʰlaːɡ
褨 *slaːlʔ
嗟 *ʔsljal
差 *sʰraːl, *sʰraːls, *sʰreːl, *sʰreːl, *sʰreːls, *sʰral
鎈 *sʰraːl
槎 *zraːl, *zraːlʔ
髊 *zlals

Originally as 𠂇 in the oracle bone script: Pictogram (象形) – a left hand. Compare 又 (“right hand”).

Late bronze inscription forms show an added 工 (“work; to assist?”) component, i.e. the current form is a phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *ʔsaːlʔ, *ʔsaːls) : phonetic 𠂇 + semantic 工, representing the original form of 佐 (OC *ʔsaːls, “to assist”).

Pronunciation

Note:
  • Quanzhou:
    • chó - vernacular;
    • chó͘ - literary.
  • Dialectal data▼
Variety Location 左
Mandarin Beijing /t͡suo²¹⁴/
Harbin /t͡suo²¹³/
Tianjin /t͡suo¹³/
Jinan /t͡suə²¹/
Qingdao /t͡suə²¹³/
Zhengzhou /t͡suo⁵³/
Xi'an /t͡suo⁵³/
Xining /t͡su⁵³/
Yinchuan /t͡suə⁵³/
Lanzhou /t͡suə⁴⁴²/
Ürümqi /t͡suɤ⁵¹/
Wuhan /t͡suo⁴²/
Chengdu /t͡so⁵³/
Guiyang /t͡so⁴²/
Kunming /t͡so⁵³/
Nanjing /t͡so²¹²/
Hefei /t͡sʊ²⁴/
Jin Taiyuan /t͡sɤ⁵³/
Pingyao /t͡ɕie̞³⁵/
Hohhot /t͡suɤ⁵³/
Wu Shanghai /t͡su³⁵/
Suzhou /t͡səu⁵¹³/
Hangzhou /t͡so⁵³/
Wenzhou /t͡sɤu³⁵/
Hui Shexian /t͡so³⁵/
Tunxi /t͡so³¹/
Xiang Changsha /t͡so⁴¹/
Xiangtan /t͡so⁴²/
Gan Nanchang /t͡so²¹³/
Hakka Meixian /t͡so³¹/
Taoyuan /t͡so³¹/
Cantonese Guangzhou /t͡sɔ³⁵/
Nanning /t͡sɔ³⁵/
Hong Kong /t͡sɔ³⁵/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /t͡so⁵³/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /t͡so³²/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /t͡sɔ²¹/
Shantou (Min Nan) /t͡so⁵³/
Haikou (Min Nan) /to²¹³/
Rime
Character 左 左
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Initial (聲) 精 (13) 精 (13)
Final (韻) 歌 (94) 歌 (94)
Tone (調) Rising (X) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division (等) I I
Fanqie 臧可切 則箇切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Pan
Wuyun		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Shao
Rongfen		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /t͡saX/ /t͡saH/
Li
Rong		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Wang
Li		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 zuǒ zuò
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 左 左 左
Reading # 1/3 2/3 3/3
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 zuǒ zuǒ zuǒ
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ tsaX › ‹ tsaX › ‹ tsaH ›
Old
Chinese		 /*tsˤa[j]ʔ/ /*tsˤa[j]ʔ/ /*tsˤarʔ-s/
English left (side) assist assist

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 左 左
Reading # 1/2 2/2
No. 18004 18006
Phonetic
component		 左 左
Rime
group		 歌 歌
Rime
subdivision		 1 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 左 佐
Old
Chinese		 /*ʔsaːlʔ/ /*ʔsaːls/

Definitions

左

  1. left (direction)
    左手  ―  zuǒshǒu  ―  left hand
  2. east; areas to the east
  3. (historical) inferior position
  4. unorthodox; wrong
  5. erroneously; mistakingly
    你想左了。  ―  Nǐ xiǎng zuǒ le.  ―  You are mistaken.
  6. different; divided; inconsistent
  7. (politics) left-wing
  8. (Sichuan, of singing) out of tune; off-key
  9. (Southwestern Mandarin, including Sichuan) to exchange
  10. A surname​.

Antonyms

  • 右 (yòu, “right”)

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

左

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

Alternative forms

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
左
ひだり
Grade: 1
kun’yomi

/hidari/: *[pidari] → [ɸidari] → [çidari].

Pronunciation

Noun

左 (hiragana ひだり, rōmaji hidari)

  1. (direction) left, the side of the left hand
    • 1603–1604, Nippo Jisho (page 229)
      Fidari. ヒダリ (左) 左手, または, 左の方
    • 1999 August 10, “封ふう印いんされし者ものの左ひだり腕うで [Left Arm of the Sealed One]”, in 幻の召喚神 [Phantom God] (in Japanese), Konami:
      封 (ふう)印 (いん)された左 (ひだり)腕 (うで)。封 (ふう)印 (いん)を解 (と)くと、無 (む)限 (げん)の力 (ちから)を得 (え)られる。
      Fūinsareta hidariude. Fūin o toku to, mugen no chikara o erareru.
      A sealed left arm. Whosoever breaks the seal shall earn infinite power.
  2. (politics) a leftist
Antonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
左
さ
Grade: 1
on’yomi

Middle Chinese 左

Pronunciation

Noun

左 (hiragana さ, rōmaji sa)

  1. the left in vertical writing
  2. the following (one)
    • 1905, Natsume Sōseki, 吾輩は猫である:
      吾輩 (わがはい)はまず彼 (かれ)がどのくらい無学 (むがく)であるかを試 (ため)してみようと思 (おも)って左 (さ)の問 (もん)答 (どう)をして見 (み)た。
      Wagahai wa mazu kare ga dono kurai mugaku de aru ka o tameshite miyō to omotte sa no mondō o shite mita.
      To judge just how uneducated he was, I posed the following question.

References

  1. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. 1 2 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

Pronunciation

  • Sound: [t͡ɕwɐ]
  • Name: [øn]/[we̞n]

Hanja

左 • (jwa)

  • Eumhun:
    • Sound (hangeul): 좌 (McCune–Reischauer: chwa, Yale: cwa)
    • Name (hangeul): 왼 (revised: oen, McCune–Reischauer: oen, Yale: oyn)
  1. left (direction)

Derived terms

  • 좌수사 (左水使, jwasusa)
  • 좌승지 (左承旨, jwaseungji)
  • 좌우 (左右, jwau)
  • 좌우지간 (左右之間, jwaujigan)
  • 좌익 (左翼, jwaik)
  • 좌익수 (左翼手, jwaiksu)
  • 좌의정 (左議政, jwauijeong)
  • 좌지우지 (左之右之, jwajiuji)
  • 좌천 (左遷, jwacheon)
  • 좌측 (左側, jwacheuk)
  • 좌향좌 (左向左, jwahyangjwa)

Vietnamese

Han character

左 (tả, tá)

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