808CJK

[419/808] Four Versions of 氣 “air”

Variants:
氣 - Taiwan, South Korea
气 - Mainland China
気 - Japan

Origin: Phonosemantic compound. 米 represents the meaning and 气 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "gift of grain", now written as 餼. The current meaning "air" is a phonetic loan.

Definition:
① air, gas, steam, vapor
② spirit

Middle Chinese Reading:
/*hǐəi/
Initial - dorsal (牙), laryngeal (喉)
Final - none

Modern Readings:
Mandarin - qì
Japanese - キ ki, ケ ke
Korean - 기운 기 giun gi, 보낼 희 bonael hi
Cantonese - hei3
Vietnamese - khí

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References:
Booklet of the 808 Commonly Used Chinese Characters in China, Japan and the ROK - www.tcs-asia.org/en/data/publications_down.php?idx…
[CN] Trilateral Common Vocabulary Dictionary (3rd Edition) - www.tcs-asia.org/en/data/publications_down.php?idx…
Unihan Database on 氣 - www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint…
[CN] Multi-function Chinese Character Database on 氣 - humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?…
Chinese Character Wiki on 氣 - dong-chinese.com/wiki/%E6%B0%A3
Official Readings of Jōyō Kanji - nihongo.monash.edu/jouyoureadings.html
[KR] Naver Hanja Dictionary on 氣 - hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/228cc1550bab4874…
Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation’s Nôm Lookup Tool - nomfoundation.org/common/nom_details.php?codepoint…
CJKV Dict on 氣 - cjkvdict.com/?search=%E6%B0%A3
Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters on 氣,
裘錫圭，1991《文字學概要（再版）》，臺北市：萬卷樓，2006年2月再版8刷。 (p. 477),
季旭昇，2004《說文新證》，台北：藝文印書館印行，2014年9月第二版。 (p. 59)
[CN] ZDIC on Middle Chinese pronunciation of 氣 (post used 王力's [Wang Li's] reconstruction) - www.zdic.net/zd/yy/zgy/%E6%B0%A3

Image Sources:
Character versions from ZDIC - www.zdic.net/hans/%E6%B0%A3
Evolution chart from 李學勤，2012《字源》，天津：天津古籍出版社，2013年7月2次印刷。 (p. 26-27, 648)

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