Chinese

嗎

ma
Final interrogative particle, forming yes/no questions.
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 口
  • 13 strokes
  • 麼
  • 么

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

The character 嗎 is a phono-semantic compound. It consists of the semantic component 口, meaning mouth, and the phonetic component 馬, meaning horse.

One theory suggests the character is a contraction of 唔 (not) and 啊 (a sentence-final particle). Another possibility is that it is derived from 無 (not). It is also recorded as being borrowed from the Tagalog interrogative particle ba.

Confidence: medium · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「嗎」是一個形聲字，由表示意義的「口」與表示讀音的「馬」組成。根據 Schuessler (2007) 的說法，此字可能源自上古漢語的「無」(*ma)。此外，H.-N. S. Cheung (2001) 與 B. Li (2006) 認為這可能是「唔」(m⁴，意為「不」) 與句末助詞「啊」(aa³) 的縮合。

在字形結構上，「口」代表嘴部，而「馬」則作為音符。另有說法指出，「嗎」是從塔加洛語 (Tagalog) 的疑問助詞「ba」借用而來。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
  • soundChinese馬 “horse (Classifier: 匹 m c; 隻／只 m c h mn; 條／条 h)”
  • borrowedTagalogba
Wiktionary etymology text
Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声): semantic 口 (“mouth”) + phonetic 馬 (OC *mraːʔ).

From 無 (OC *ma, “not”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Etymology 2

Likely a contraction of 唔 (m⁴, “not”) + 啊 (aa³, sentence-final particle) (H.-N. S. Cheung, 2001; B. Li, 2006).

Etymology 3

From Tagalog ba (interrogative particle).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources