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The top character 姉 is a Japanese specific character for "elder sister". Its equivalent in Chinese are 姊 and 姐.
The bottom character 妹 means "younger sister". If the order of two horizontal stokes in 未 partical are reversed and changed the character to 妺, it would mean "wife of the last ruler of the Xia dynasty".
Both characters are somewhat recognizable, but I am astonished by the mangled left partial 女.
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I know what you mean about the mangled left partial. At one point at a respectable Chinese restaurant in my town, that was what they had on the sign for the ladies' washroom... I have no idea why it took them so long to take it down.
ReplyDelete...Why is 妺 a modern character?
ReplyDeleteIn Japanese, when these two characters are put together, they make "Shimai," which is the generic word for Sister (older or younger). But Japanese or Chinese, they're poorly written.
ReplyDelete