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阿ā

Character evolution

阿

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Simplified · Today

Shuowen

阿 (ā) is composed of the hill radical 阝 on the left and the phonetic component 可 on the right, depicting a large mound or slope. In oracle bone script the hill radical appears as a stylized slope, indicating a natural elevation that gave the original meaning 'a hill, a mound'. The phonetic 可 provides the sound, while the meaning later expanded to a prefix for personal names and, by phonetic loan, to an interjection.

Pinyin

ā· HSK 1