Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

貝 (radical 154 貝+0, 7 strokes, cangjie input 月山金 (BUC), four-corner 6080₀, composition ⿱目八)

1. Kangxi radical #154, ⾙ ‎(“shell”).

References

• KangXi: page 1204, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36656
• Dae Jaweon: page 1665, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 6, page 3622, character 1
• Unihan data for U+8C9D

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 貝
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形) – cowry.

Etymology

Cowries were used as money in ancient China (Shell money). Guo (1945) proposes that cowries used by the ancient Chinese dynasties in Central China must have come from the southeastern shores of China and areas further south, as the species of sea snail used as decoration and currency—Monetaria moneta (money cowry)—is not native to the eastern seashores of China. He further proposes that in addition to the cowry itself, the word for cowry, 貝, is also an ancient loanword from languages of the south (which call it “bia”).

Compare Malay bia ‎(“cowry”), Thai เบี้ย ‎(bîia, “cowry shell; money”), Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɓa(a)j ‎(“bean, small weight or coin”) > Khasi sbâi, 'bâi ‎(“money, cowry, shell”), Khmer ពៃ ‎(pey, “obsolete small coin”).

Alternatively, Starostin, Matisoff (2003) and Schuessler (2007) relate 貝 to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bwap ‎(“snail”), via 貝 (OC *paːds) < *pāps. If so it would be cognate with Jingpho pawp, lapawp ‎(“snail”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

貝

1. shellfish; cowrie
2. ^†money; currency
3. A surname​.

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: はい (hai) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kan’on: はい (hai) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kan’yōon: ばい (bai) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kun: かい (kai)

Compounds

• 一枚貝 (いちまいがい) ‎(ichimaigai): univalve
• 二枚貝 (にまいがい) ‎(nimaigai): bivalve
• 帆立貝 (ほたてがい) ‎(hotategai): scallop

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) か​い [káꜜì] (Atamadaka - [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠i]

Noun

貝 ‎(hiragana かい, romaji kai)

1. a shellfish

References

1. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
2. ↑ 1974, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Second Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō

Korean

Hanja

貝 • ‎(pae)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 패 (revised: pae, McCune-Reischauer: p'ae, Yale: phay)

• Name (hangeul): 조개 (revised: jogae)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

貝 (bối, buổi, bói, búi, với, mấy, mới, vuối, thói)

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