奶

奶 (radical 38, 女+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 女弓竹尸 (VNHS), four-corner 4742₇, composition ⿰女乃)

• 𣐨, 𫇵, 𪺫

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 255, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6043
• Dae Jaweon: page 518, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1024, character 6
• Unihan data for U+5976

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *rneːlʔ) : semantic 女 + phonetic 乃 (OC *nɯːʔ).

Unknown.

The old form was 嬭. Similar words in the area include Proto-Hmong-Mien *niaʔ²ᴰ (“mother”), Tibetan ཨ་ནེ (a ne), ནེ་ནེ (ne ne, “paternal aunt”), Khmer ញី (ñii, “female”). It may be comparable with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-nja-n (“breast; milk; suck”), whence Sichuan Yi ꑍ (nyip, “liquid milk”), ꀉꆂ (ax nie, “breast; milk”).

It is unknown how the Min forms relate to forms in other dialects. See this article for a discussion of the Min Nan etymon. For similar nasalisations in Min, compare 耳 (ěr).

Colloquial words in different Min dialects show considerable variation – most have an n- initial, but finals and tones differ greatly (although the tone is never a rising tone). Some propose that this is substrate influence, passed on from the maternal Baiyue lineages since the intermarriages between southward-migrating Han Chinese and native non-Han women. Other southern dialects also show remnants of this native word: Hakka [Meixian] nɛn⁵, Cantonese [Guangzhou] nin¹ (姩 or 𢆡). Compare Thai นม (nom, “breast; breastmilk”), Zhuang noemz (“breast; breastmilk”).

The long-recognised Sino-Tibetan etymon in Chinese is 乳 (OC *njoʔ); see there for more.

奶

1. woman's breasts

   開車不摸奶，摸奶不開車 [MSC, trad.]
   开车不摸奶，摸奶不开车 [MSC, simp.]

   kāichē bù mōnǎi, mōnǎi bù kāichē [Pinyin]

   Do not fondle breasts while driving, and do not drive while fondling breasts.

2. milk; breastmilk
3. to nurse
4. to breastfeed; to suckle
5. infant; infantile
6. mother
7. grandmother

• 乳 (rǔ, “breast; breastmilk”)

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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

• Go-on: ない (nai); ね (ne)
• Kan-on: だい (dai)
• Kun: ちち (chichi, 奶); はぐくむ (hagukumu, 奶む)

奶 • (nae) (hangeul 내, revised nae, McCune–Reischauer nae)

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

奶 (nãi, nái)

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