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Definition 2024

它

它

See also: 牠

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

它 (radical 40 宀+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 十心 (JP), four-corner 30711, composition ⿱宀匕)

Derived characters

References

  • KangXi: page 281, character 14
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 7057
  • Dae Jaweon: page 551, character 14
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 910, character 3
  • Unihan data for U+5B83

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 它

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 它
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Bamboo and silk script Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (它) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
佗 *l̥ʰaːl, *l'aːl
拕 *l̥ʰaːl, *l'aːlʔ
它 *l̥ʰaːl
蛇 *l̥ʰaːl, *ɦljaːl, *lal
袉 *l̥ʰaːlʔ, *l'aːl, *l'aːlʔ
鴕 *l'aːl
駝 *l'aːl
紽 *l'aːl
鮀 *l'aːl
陀 *l'aːl
沱 *l'aːl, *l'aːlʔ
跎 *l'aːl
詑 *l'aːl, *l'aːlʔ, *hlel, *lal, *l̥ʰoːl
酡 *l'aːl
迱 *l'aːl
舵 *l'aːlʔ
柁 *l'aːlʔ
鉈 *ɦljaːl, *hljal

Pictogram (象形) : a snake. This is now written as the derivative 蛇 (OC *l̥ʰaːl, *ɦljaːl, *lal).

The character was later borrowed for the then-homophonous third-person pronoun (“he/she/it”). Today 他 (tā) is used for male or gender-unspecified “he” and 她 (tā) for “she”.

Pronunciation

Rime
Character 它
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 透 (6)
Final (韻) 歌 (94)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) I
Fanqie 託何切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /tʰɑ/
Pan
Wuyun		 /tʰɑ/
Shao
Rongfen		 /tʰɑ/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /tʰa/
Li
Rong		 /tʰɑ/
Wang
Li		 /tʰɑ/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /tʰɑ/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 tuō
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 它
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 tā
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ tha ›
Old
Chinese		 /*l̥ˤaj/
English another

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 它
Reading # 1/1
No. 12210
Phonetic
component		 它
Rime
group		 歌
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 佗
Old
Chinese		 /*l̥ʰaːl/

Definitions

它

  1. third-person singular pronoun for inanimate objects and animals; it
    它通過遙控工作。 / 它通过遥控工作。  ―  Tā tōngguò yáokòng gōngzuò.  ―  It works by remote control.

See also

Standard 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 它們／它们 (tāmen)
  • (Classical Chinese, gender and number neutral - he, she, it, they) 其 (qí)
  • (Min Nan, Wu, gender neutral - he, she, it) 伊 (yī)
  • (Cantonese, gender neutral - he, she, it) 佢 (qú), 渠 (qú)
  • 他 (tā) he, him
  • 它 it
  • 祂 (tā) he (deity)
  • 牠／它 (tā) it (animal)

Compounds

  • 之死靡它
  • 磨它子

Japanese

Kanji

它

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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Readings

Vietnamese

Han character

它 (dà, đà, tha)

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

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