Radical 5

乙
Radical 5 (U+2F04)
乙 (U+4E59) "second, fishing hook"
Pronunciations
Pinyin:yǐ
Bopomofo:一ˇ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh:yii
Wade–Giles:i3
Cantonese Yale:yut
Jyutping:jyut3
Pe̍h-ōe-jī:it
Japanese Kana:オツ otsu (on'yomi)
きのと kinoto /おと oto (kun'yomi)
Sino-Korean:을 eul
Hán-Việt:ất
Names
Japanese name(s):乙 otsu
乙繞/おつにょう otsunyoū
釣り針/つりばり tsuribari (fishing hook)
Hangul:새 sae
Stroke order animation

Radical 5 or radical second (乙部), meaning "second", is one of 6 of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of only one stroke. However, this radical is mainly used to categorize miscellaneous characters otherwise not belonging to any radical, mainly featuring a hook or fold, and 乙 is the character with the fewest strokes.

In the ancient Chinese cyclic character numeral system, 乙 represents the second Celestial stem (天干 tiāngān).

In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 42 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.

In mainland China, 乙 along with other 14 associated indexing components, including 乚, etc., are affiliated to a new radical 乛 (乛部), which is the 5th principal indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries.[1] Usually, only several out of the 15 variant components are listed under radical 乛 in dictionary indexes.

Evolution

Derived characters

Strokes Characters
+0 乙 乚 乛Component only
+1 乜 九
+2 乞 也 习SC (=習 -> 羽)
+3 乢 乣 乤KO 乥KO
+4 乧KO
+5 乨 乩 乪 乫KO 乬KO 乭KO 乮KO 乯KO
+6 乱 (SC/JP, =亂) 乲KO
+7 乳 乴KO 乵KO 乶KO 乷KO 乸
+8 乹 乺KO 乻KO 乼KO 乽KO
+10 乾 乿 亀JP (=龜 -> 龜)
+11 亁 (=乾)
+12 亂 亃 亄

In the Unihan Database, 亀 (Japanese simplified form of 龜) falls under Radical 5 + 10 strokes, while other variants of 龜 (including Simplified Chinese 龟) fall under Radical 213 (龜 "turtle"), causing an inconsistency. However, in most Japanese dictionaries, 亀 is treated as a variant of Radical 213 (龜) and indexed Radical 213 + 0 strokes.

Sinogram

As an independent character it is a Jōyō kanji, or a kanji used in writing the Japanese language. It is a secondary school kanji.[2] It is also used in the Chinese language.

It means "secondary" and is mainly used in compounds.

See also

References

  1. ^ GF 0011–2009 汉字部首表 (The Table of Indexing Chinese Character Component [sic])
  2. ^ "KANJI-Link". www.kanji-link.com. Retrieved 2023-06-02.

Further reading

  • Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1.
  • Leyi, Li (1993). Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases. Beijing. ISBN 978-7-5619-0204-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)