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Subject: Re: kanji usage question
From: TAKASUGI Shinji (ts
sf.airnet.ne.jp)
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 16:35:10 GMT
References: 1
原 is a combination of 厂 (cliff) and 泉 (spring) meaning the source of water. It was also written as 
, which correctly showed the radicals.
Later, Chinese began to use 原 for wilderness just because the pronunciation was the same. This process is called 仮借 (kasha), one of the six ways of creating kanji. The original character for wilderness was 
- very complicated!
Now that 原 got two meanings, 水 (water) was added to make 源 to clarify the meaning. This process is called 形声 (keisei), the commonest of the six ways of creating kanji. 原 still has the original meaning, though.
A similar example is 七 (seven) and 切 (cut). 七 was originally a pictograph of cutting a bone with a knife. Later it began to be used for the number seven just because the pronunciation was the same. 刀 (knife) was added to make 切 in order to show the original meaning. 七 means only the number seven now.
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