然

Contents

TranslingualEdit

Stroke order

EtymologyEdit

Historical forms of the character 然
Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Ideogrammic compound (會意): 肰 ‎(“dog meat”) + 火 ‎(“fire”): to burn. 肰 is also phonetic. The derivative 燃 stands for the original word in Modern Chinese.

Note that the upper left component is analyzed as 肉 (meat), and in the character 肰 (used as phonetic) is drawn as 月 (moon), but in 然 this is distorted (tilted), looking more like 夕 (evening), with an extra stroke; compare 祭, 將.

Han characterEdit

然 (radical 86 火+8, 12 strokes, cangjie input 月大火 (BKF), four-corner 2333₃, composition ⿱肰灬)

Derived charactersEdit

• 燃, 橪, 㒄, 撚, 㜣, 繎, 嘫

ReferencesEdit

• KangXi: page 675, character 12
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 19149
• Dae Jaweon: page 1086, character 20
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 2213, character 5
• Unihan data for U+7136

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ChineseEdit

simp. and trad.		然

PronunciationEdit

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): rán (ran²)

  (Zhuyin): ㄖㄢˊ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jin⁴
• Min Nan (POJ): liân / jiân

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: rán
    • Zhuyin: ㄖㄢˊ
    • Wade-Giles: jan²
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: ran
    • IPA ^(key): /ʐa̠n³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: jin⁴
    • Yale: yìhn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jin⁴
    • IPA ^(key): /jiːn²¹/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien: Kaohsiung, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: jiân
    • Tâi-lô: jiân
    • Phofsit Daibuun: jieen
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /d͡ʑiɛn²³/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /d͡ʑiɛn¹³/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou, Taipei, Xiamen)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: liân
    • Tâi-lô: liân
    • Phofsit Daibuun: lieen
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /liɛn²⁴/
    • IPA (Taipei): /liɛn²⁴/
    • IPA (Xiamen): /liɛn²⁴/

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• Dialectal data▼

Variety	Location	edit 然
Mandarin	Beijing	/ʐan³⁵/
	Harbin	/ʐan²⁴/
	Tianjin	/ian⁴⁵/ /ʐan⁴⁵/
	Jinan	/ʐã⁴²/
	Qingdao	/iã⁴²/
	Zhengzhou	/ʐan⁵³/ /ʐan⁴²/ ～而
	Xi'an	/ʐã²⁴/
	Xining	/ʐã²⁴/
	Yinchuan	/ʐan⁵³/
	Lanzhou	/ʐɛ̃n⁵³/
	Ürümqi	/ʐan⁵¹/
	Wuhan	/nan²¹³/
	Chengdu	/zan³¹/
	Guiyang	/zan²¹/
	Kunming	/ʐã̠³¹/
	Nanjing	/ʐaŋ²⁴/
	Hefei	/ʐæ̃⁵⁵/ /ʐən⁵⁵/
Jin	Taiyuan	/zæ̃¹¹/
	Pingyao	/ʐɑŋ¹³/
	Hohhot	/ʐæ̃⁵³/
Wu	Shanghai	/zø²³/
	Suzhou	/zø¹³/
	Hangzhou	/zz̩ʷõ²¹³/
	Wenzhou	/ji³¹/
Hui	Shexian	/ie⁴⁴/
	Tunxi	/iɛ⁴⁴/
Xiang	Changsha	/yẽ¹³/
	Xiangtan	/iẽ¹²/
Gan	Nanchang	/lɛn⁴⁵/
Hakka	Meixian	/ian¹¹/
	Taoyuan	/ʒen¹¹/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/jin²¹/
	Nanning	/jin²¹/
	Hong Kong	/jɐn²¹/
Min	Xiamen (Min Nan)	/lian³⁵/
	Fuzhou (Min Dong)	/yoŋ⁵³/
	Jian'ou (Min Bei)	/iŋ²¹/
	Shantou (Min Nan)	/ziaŋ⁵⁵/
	Haikou (Min Nan)	/zin³¹/

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• Middle Chinese: /ȵiᴇn/▼

Rime
Character	然
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	日 (38)
Final (韻)	仙 (77)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	如延切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ȵiᴇn/
Pan Wuyun	/ȵiɛn/
Shao Rongfen	/ȵʑjæn/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ȵian/
Li Rong	/ȵiɛn/
Wang Li	/ȵʑĭɛn/
Bernard Karlgren	/ȵʑi̯ɛn/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	rán

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*[n]a[n]/

  (Zhengzhang): /*njen/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	然
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	rán
Middle Chinese	‹ nyen ›
Old Chinese	/*[n]a[n]/
English	so, thus; (adv suffix)
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] 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	然
Reading #	1/1
No.	10756
Phonetic component	肰
Rime group	元
Rime subdivision	2
Corresponding MC rime	然
Old Chinese	/*njen/

DefinitionsEdit

然

1. ^† so, thus, in this manner, like this
   • 然後 / 然后  ―  ránhòu  ―  then (literally "after things turn out this way")
   • 不然  ―  bùrán  ―  or else, otherwise (literally "not so")
2. ^†(no longer productive) Suffix forming adverbs, sometimes also adjectives, with an abstract meaning of "in the manner of, like"
   • 顯然 / 显然  ―  xiǎnrán  ―  apparently, obviously
   • 果然  ―  guǒrán  ―  as expected (literally "as a result")
   • 龐然大物 / 庞然大物  ―  pángrándàwù  ―  giant, something enormous (literally "a bigly big thing")
   • 喟然長嘆 / 喟然长叹  ―  kuìránchángtàn  ―  to sigh (with 喟 being an onomatopoeia)
3. (obsolete) but

Usage notesEdit

This character appears almost only in compounds in Modern Chinese.

CompoundsEdit

• 偶然 (ǒurán)
• 全然 (quánrán)
• 必然 (bìrán)
• 忽然 (hūrán)
• 慨然 (kǎirán)

• 昂然 (ángrán)
• 欣然 (xīnrán)
• 然則／然则 (ránzé)
• 然後／然后 (ránhòu)
• 然而 (rán'ér)

• 然頃／然顷
• 當然／当然 (dāngrán)
• 突然 (tūrán)
• 自然 (zìrán)
• 雖然／虽然 (suīrán)

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JapaneseEdit

KanjiEdit

然

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. suffix after nouns to express likeness
2. so, be as it is
3. however (as shikashi)
4. a certain thing

ReadingsEdit

• Goon: ねん (nen)
• Kan’on: ぜん (zen)
• Kun: もえる (moeru), しかれども (shikaredomo), しかして (shikashite)

CompoundsEdit

Compounds

偶然 (ぐうぜん) ‎(gūzen) 砉然 (けきぜん) ‎(kekizen): giving off a noise like separation of skin from bone 全然 (ぜんぜん) ‎(zenzen) 突然 (とつぜん) ‎(totsuzen) 判然 (はんぜん) ‎(hanzen): clearness

EtymologyEdit

Kanji in this term
然
ぜん Grade: 4
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 然 ‎(nyen, “-like”).

PronunciationEdit

• On'yomi: Kan'on
• IPA^(key): [zẽ̞ɴ]

SuffixEdit

然 ‎(hiragana ぜん, romaji -zen)

1. -like

ReferencesEdit

• Halpern, Jack: New Japanese-English Character Dictionary -Kenkyusha 1990

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KoreanEdit

HanjaEdit

然 • ‎(yeon) (hangeul 연, revised yeon, McCune-Reischauer yŏn, Yale yen)

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

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VietnameseEdit

Han characterEdit

然 (nhiên, nhen, nhơn)

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