Translingual

Han character

奶 (radical 38 女+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 女弓竹尸 (VNHS), four-corner 4742₇, composition ⿰女乃)

References

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 255, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6043
• Dae Jaweon: page 518, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1024, character 6
• Unihan data for U+5976

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *rneːlʔ) : semantic 女 + phonetic 乃 ‎(OC *nɯːʔ).

Etymology

Unknown.

The old form was 嬭 (nǎi). Similar words in the area include Proto-Hmong-Mien *niaʔ²ᴰ ‎(“mother”), Tibetan ཨ་ནེ ‎(a ne), ནེ་ནེ ‎(ne ne, “paternal aunt”), Khmer ញី ‎(nhi, “female”). It may be comparable with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-nja-n ‎(“breast; milk; suck”), whence Sichuan Yi ꑍ ‎(nyip, “liquid milk”), ꀉꆂ ‎(ax nie, “breast; milk”).

It is unknown how the Min forms relate to forms in other dialects. See this article for a discussion of the Min Nan etymon. For similar nasalisations in Min, compare 耳 (ěr).

Colloquial words in different Min dialects show considerable variation – most have an n- initial, but finals and tones differ greatly (although the tone is never a rising tone). Some propose that this is substrate influence, passed on from the maternal Baiyue lineages since the intermarriages between southward-migrating Han Chinese and native non-Han women. Other southern dialects also show remnants of this native word: Hakka [Meixian] nɛn⁵, Cantonese [Guangzhou] nin¹ (姩 or 𢆡). Compare Thai นม ‎(nom, “breast; breastmilk”), Zhuang noemz ‎(“breast; breastmilk”).

The long-recognised Sino-Tibetan etymon in Chinese is 乳 (OC *njoʔ); see there for more.

Pronunciation

Definitions

奶

1. woman's breasts
2. milk; breastmilk
3. to nurse
4. to breastfeed; to suckle
5. infant; infantile
6. mother
7. grandmother

Synonyms

• 乳 (rǔ, “breast; breastmilk”)

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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Readings

• On: だい (dai), ね (ne), ない (nai)
• Kun: ちち (chichi), はぐくむ (hagukumu)

Korean

Hanja

奶 • ‎(nae) (hangeul 내, revised nae, McCune-Reischauer nae)

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Vietnamese

Han character

奶 (nãi, nái)

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