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Recently after I've happened to come across the component 倝 (gàn; sunrise, dawn) (Baxter-Sagart OC: *[k]ˤar-s), I was curious about the left component, or 龺, since I've also seen this component in other characters such as 朝 (cháo; dynasty/zhāo; morning) (Baxter-Sagart OC: *m-taw or *taw) and 翰 (hàn; writing brush, pen, pencil) (Baxter-Sagart OC: *[g]ˤar, *[g]ˤar-s or *m-kˤar-s).

However though when looking up the origin for this component, I came across three possible explanations.

The ones being are:

  • Pictograph of the sun (日) rising through the grass (originally either two or four 屮 components, now written as two 十 components).
  • Abbreviation of 倝.
  • Variation of 卓.

I think I understand that 龺 is not, in terms of etymology, related to 卓 since im assuming it is grouped that way since 卓 looks similar to 龺.

So maybe if I can get some clarification here, what is the true glyph origin for the component 龺? Is this component just an abbreviation of 倝 or is this a pictograph character?

(Also just a note, I've added the Baxter-Sagart old Chinese pronunciations just to see if any characters with that exact component is related at all to each other and looks like both 朝 and 翰 seem to not be related at all. However though both 倝 and 翰 seem to share similar pronunciations. I'm still a bit confused though on the usage of the component here.)

prismcool
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1 Answers1

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「龺」 is a regular script shape that appears multiple times by coincidence. There is not really a "glyph origin of 「龺」" to speak of:

  • 「倝」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[k]ˤar-s/, sunrise) is comprised of semantic 「昜」 (bright) and phonetic 「㫃」 (/*qarʔ/).

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    倝
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    This form is an illustrative structure for 「倝」. There is no individual component like 「龺」; the thing that looks like 「早」 in 「倝」 is a graphical corruption of 「昜」, and the thing that looks like 「十」 (shape of a flagpole) and 「人」 (shape of a flag or banner) forms the picture that 「㫃」 represents.

    「倝」 is a very common phonetic component, such as in 「翰」, 「乾」， and 「幹」. It is also a phonetic component in 「韓」 (originally 「」), but here, the flag banner shape was left out.

  • 「朝」 (morning) is a picture of a (rising) sun 「日」 side-by-side with a (setting) moon 「月」 among plants and trees (multiple 「屮」 or 「木」).

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    朝
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    甲
    朝
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    「龺」 is not an individual component here, but rather an arbitrary grouping of 「日」 and the plants and trees (abbreviated into 「十十」).

  • The "variant of 「卓」" is just a very rare shape change. 「卓」 is a picture of a child 「子」 with a tag on the child's head.

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    卓
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    「子」 was later corrupted into 「早」, and in 「」, the tag is written as 「十」.

References:

  • 季旭昇《說文新證》
dROOOze
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