她
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Translingual
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Han character
她 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 女心木 (VPD), four-corner 44412, composition ⿰女也)
References
- Kangxi Dictionary: page 255, character 5
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6046
- Dae Jaweon: page 518, character 5
- Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1029, character 2
- Unihan data for U+5979
Chinese
Glyph origin
Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声) : semantic 女 (“female, woman”) + phonetic 也 (OC *laːlʔ).
Originally a variant of 姐 (jiě, “elder sister”). Later repurposed as a feminine third-person pronoun influenced by European languages, with the glyph being the result of replacing the 人 (rén, “person”) radical in 他 (tā) with 女 (“woman”). Linguist Liu Bannong is credited with coining this use around the 1910s (Bi, 2013).
Etymology 1
| For pronunciation and definitions of 她 – see 姐 (“elder sister; woman; lady; madame; etc.”). (This character is a variant form of 姐). |
Pronunciation
Definitions
她
- she, her [from 1910s]
- 教我如何不想她！ [Written Vernacular Chinese, trad. and simp.]
- From: 1920, Liu Bannong
- Jiào wǒ rúhé bù xiǎng tā! [Pinyin]
- How can I stop missing her! (lit., "how can one make me not think of her!")
- 那人說：「你所賜給我、與我同居的女人，她把那樹上的果子給我，我就吃了。」 [MSC, trad.]
- From: 新標點和合本 (Chinese Union Version with New Punctuation), 創世記 (Genesis) 3:12
- Nà rén shuō: “Nǐ suǒ cì gěi wǒ, yǔ wǒ tóngjū de nǚrén, tā bǎ nà shù shàng de guǒzi gěi wǒ, wǒ jiù chī le.” [Pinyin]
- And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
那人说：「你所赐给我、与我同居的女人，她把那树上的果子给我，我就吃了。」 [MSC, simp.]
Usage notes
- Occasionally, 他 (tā) may be used for both genders.
See also
No major Chinese language distinguishes between “he”, “she” and “it” in spoken form, and Mandarin 他／她／牠／它／祂 (tā) is the only instance where such a distinction is made in written form. Thus see the table below for words for “she” in other varieties of Chinese.
| Standard Mandarin Chinese personal pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Singular | Plural | |
| 1st | — | 我 (wǒ) | 我們／我们 (wǒmen) |
| inclusive | 咱們／咱们 (zánmen) | ||
| 2nd | male/indefinite | 你 (nǐ) | 你們／你们 (nǐmen) |
| female | 妳／你 (nǐ) | 妳們／你们 (nǐmen) | |
| deity | 祢 (nǐ) | 祢們／祢们 (nǐmen) | |
| polite | 您 (nín) | 你們／你们 (nǐmen) 您們／您们 (nínmen) | |
| 3rd | male/indefinite | 他 (tā) | 他們／他们 (tāmen) |
| female | 她 (tā) | 她們／她们 (tāmen) | |
| deity | 祂 (tā) | 祂們／祂们 (tāmen) | |
| animal | 牠／它 (tā) | 牠們／它们 (tāmen) | |
| inanimate | 它 (tā) | 它們／它们 (tāmen) | |
Japanese
Kanji
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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