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See also: 中
央 U+592E, 央
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-592E
← 夭
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 夯 →

Translingual

Han character

央 (Kangxi radical 37, 大+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 中月大 (LBK), four-corner 50030, composition ⿻冂大 or ⿻𠀃人)

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 249, character 5
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5840
  • Dae Jaweon: page 508, character 3
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 524, character 6
  • Unihan data for U+592E

Chinese

trad. 央
simp. # 央

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 央
Shang Western Zhou Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
Characters in the same phonetic series (央) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
鴦 *qaːŋ, *qaŋ
佒 *qaːŋ
咉 *qaːŋ, *qaːŋʔ
眏 *qaːŋ
姎 *qaːŋ, *qaːŋʔ
坱 *qaːŋʔ
映 *qaːŋʔ, *qraŋs
泱 *qaːŋʔ, *qaŋ
盎 *qaːŋʔ, *qaːŋs
駚 *qaːŋʔ, *qaŋʔ
軮 *qaːŋʔ
醠 *qaːŋʔ, *qaːŋs
央 *qaŋ
秧 *qaŋ, *qaŋʔ
殃 *qaŋ
鞅 *qaŋ, *qaŋʔ, *qaŋs
鉠 *qaŋ, *qraŋ
雵 *qaŋ
胦 *qaŋ, *qroːŋ
柍 *qaŋʔ
詇 *qaŋʔ, *qaŋs, *qraŋs
岟 *qaŋʔ
炴 *qaŋʔ
怏 *qaŋʔ, *qaŋs
紻 *qaŋʔ
英 *qraŋ
瑛 *qraŋ
霙 *qraŋ
韺 *qraŋ
媖 *qraŋ
渶 *qraŋ
鶧 *qraŋ
楧 *qraŋ
暎 *qraŋs

Ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意): 大 (“man”) + 冂 (“pole”) - a man carrying a pole with its middle on his shoulder.

Etymology

於 (OC ʔa) plus terminative suffix *-ŋ, hence literally "to get to be in the middle" (Schuessler, 2007). See 於 (OC ʔa) for further etymology.

Pronunciation 1

Note:
  • yông - literary;
  • ông - vernacular (limited, e.g. 中央).
Note:
  • iong - literary;
  • iang - literary (all sense in Zhangzhou, “to beg” in Xiamen and mainstream Taiwanese);
  • ng - vernacular (limited, e.g. 中央).
  • Dialectal data
Variety Location 央
Mandarin Beijing /iɑŋ⁵⁵/
Harbin /iaŋ⁴⁴/
Tianjin /iɑŋ²¹/
Jinan /iaŋ²¹³/
Qingdao /iaŋ²¹³/
Zhengzhou /iaŋ²⁴/
Xi'an /iaŋ²¹/
Xining /iɔ̃⁴⁴/
Yinchuan /iɑŋ⁴⁴/
Lanzhou /iɑ̃³¹/
Ürümqi /iɑŋ⁴⁴/
Wuhan /iaŋ⁵⁵/
Chengdu /iaŋ⁵⁵/
Guiyang /iaŋ⁵⁵/
Kunming /iã̠⁴⁴/
Nanjing /iaŋ³¹/
Hefei /iɑ̃²¹/
Jin Taiyuan /iɒ̃¹¹/
Pingyao /iɑŋ¹³/
Hohhot /iɑ̃³¹/
Wu Shanghai /iã⁵³/
Suzhou /iã⁵⁵/
Hangzhou /ʔiɑŋ³³/
Wenzhou /j̠i³³/
Hui Shexian /ia³¹/
Tunxi /iau¹¹/
Xiang Changsha /ian³³/
Xiangtan /ian³³/
Gan Nanchang /iɔŋ⁴²/
Hakka Meixian /ioŋ⁴⁴/
Taoyuan /oŋ²⁴/
Cantonese Guangzhou /jœŋ⁵³/
Nanning /jœŋ⁵⁵/
Hong Kong /jœŋ⁵⁵/
Min Xiamen (Hokkien) /iɔŋ⁵⁵/
Fuzhou (Eastern Min) /yoŋ⁴⁴/
Jian'ou (Northern Min) /iɔŋ⁵⁴/
/ɔŋ⁵⁴/
Shantou (Teochew) /iaŋ³³/
/ŋ³³/
Haikou (Hainanese) /iaŋ²³/
/o²³/
Rime
Character 央
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 影 (34)
Final (韻) 陽 (105)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) III
Fanqie 於良切
Baxter 'jang
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/ʔɨɐŋ/
Pan
Wuyun 		/ʔiɐŋ/
Shao
Rongfen 		/ʔiɑŋ/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/ʔɨaŋ/
Li
Rong 		/ʔiaŋ/
Wang
Li 		/ĭaŋ/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/ʔi̯aŋ/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		yāng
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		joeng1
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 央 央
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		yāng yāng
Middle
Chinese 		‹ ʔjang › ‹ ʔjang ›
Old
Chinese 		/*ʔaŋ/ /*ʔaŋ/
English end (v.) center (n.)

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. * as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 央
Reading # 1/1
No. 14488
Phonetic
component 		央
Rime
group 		陽
Rime
subdivision 		0
Corresponding
MC rime 		央
Old
Chinese 		/*qaŋ/

Definitions

央

  1. center; middle
  2. to end; to finish
  3. to beg; to plead; to implore
  4. (alt. form 殃) calamity; disaster
  5. a surname

Pronunciation 2

  • Dialectal data
Variety Location 央
Mandarin Beijing /iɑŋ⁵⁵/
Harbin /iaŋ⁴⁴/
Tianjin /iɑŋ²¹/
Jinan /iaŋ²¹³/
Qingdao /iaŋ²¹³/
Zhengzhou /iaŋ²⁴/
Xi'an /iaŋ²¹/
Xining /iɔ̃⁴⁴/
Yinchuan /iɑŋ⁴⁴/
Lanzhou /iɑ̃³¹/
Ürümqi /iɑŋ⁴⁴/
Wuhan /iaŋ⁵⁵/
Chengdu /iaŋ⁵⁵/
Guiyang /iaŋ⁵⁵/
Kunming /iã̠⁴⁴/
Nanjing /iaŋ³¹/
Hefei /iɑ̃²¹/
Jin Taiyuan /iɒ̃¹¹/
Pingyao /iɑŋ¹³/
Hohhot /iɑ̃³¹/
Wu Shanghai /iã⁵³/
Suzhou /iã⁵⁵/
Hangzhou /ʔiɑŋ³³/
Wenzhou /j̠i³³/
Hui Shexian /ia³¹/
Tunxi /iau¹¹/
Xiang Changsha /ian³³/
Xiangtan /ian³³/
Gan Nanchang /iɔŋ⁴²/
Hakka Meixian /ioŋ⁴⁴/
Taoyuan /oŋ²⁴/
Cantonese Guangzhou /jœŋ⁵³/
Nanning /jœŋ⁵⁵/
Hong Kong /jœŋ⁵⁵/
Min Xiamen (Hokkien) /iɔŋ⁵⁵/
Fuzhou (Eastern Min) /yoŋ⁴⁴/
Jian'ou (Northern Min) /iɔŋ⁵⁴/
/ɔŋ⁵⁴/
Shantou (Teochew) /iaŋ³³/
/ŋ³³/
Haikou (Hainanese) /iaŋ²³/
/o²³/

Definitions

央

  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese)only used in 央央

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

央

(Third grade kyōiku kanji)

Readings

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
央
おう
Grade: 3
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 央 (MC 'jang).

Pronunciation

Affix

央(おう) • (ō) ←あう (au)?

  1. centre, middle
  2. (US) short for 央州 (“Oregon (a state of the United States)”)
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Various nanori readings.

Proper noun

央(あたる) or 央(おう) or 央(とおる) or 央(なかば) or 央(ひさし) or 央(ひろし) or 央(よう) or 央(なか) • (Ataru or Ō or Tōru or Nakaba or Hisashi or Hiroshi or Yō or Naka) 

  1. a male given name

Korean

Hanja

央 • (ang) (hangeul 앙, revised ang, McCune–Reischauer ang)

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

央: Hán Nôm readings: ương, trân

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
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