yán
sel
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我喜歡吃鹽酥雞。
wǒ xǐhuān chī yán sū jī.
I like to eat fried chicken with salt and pepper.
鹽巴可以幫助食物保鮮。
yán ba kěyǐ bāngzhù shí wù bǎo xiān.
Salt can help preserve food.
海水裡含有大量的鹽分。
hǎi shuǐ lǐ hán yǒu dà liàng de yán fèn.
Seawater contains a lot of salt.
盐巴 (yánba)
salt
盐分 (yánfèn)
salt content
淡 (dàn)
fresh
甜 (tián)
sweet
The Chinese character 盐 (yán) for "salt" is composed of two parts: the radical 鹵 (lǔ) and the phonetic component 咸 (xián). The radical 鹵 originally meant "salt marsh" or "salt lake", and it is also used in other characters related to salt, such as 鹵水 (lǔshuǐ) "brine" and 鹵肉 (lǔròu) "salted meat". The phonetic component 咸 (xián) means "salty" or "savory", and it is also used in other characters related to taste, such as 鹹味 (xiánwèi) "salty taste" and 鹹菜 (xiáncài) "salted vegetables".The character 盐 (yán) first appeared in the oracle bone script, the earliest known form of Chinese writing, dating back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC). In the oracle bone script, the character 盐 was written as a simple combination of the radical 鹵 and the phonetic component 咸. The character has evolved over time, but its basic structure has remained the same.The character 盐 (yán) is a common character in Chinese, and it is used in a variety of words and phrases related to salt. For example, it is used in the word 鹽巴 (yánba) "salt", the phrase 鹽水 (yánshuǐ) "salt water", and the idiom 鹽出無稅 (yánchūwúshuì) "no tax on salt", which means that salt is a necessity of life and should not be taxed.
