On Characters with Similar Sound“去”(qu) — A Concurrent Study of the Pictophonetic Character“灋”(fa) in AnAnalytical Dictionary of Characters

The characters with similar sound“去”(qu) have two sections“鱼”(yu)and“叶”(ye). This is difficult to explain in phonetics. From the perspective of combination between form and sound, QIU Xigui and FENG Zheng have demon- strated that the echoic radical part has in fact two origins, i. e. the two“去” with similar forms but different pronunciation and meanings. “去” in“来去” just means“leave”. And the meaning of“去” in“盍” is“cover”. The new character“灋” in Tsing- hua bamboo slips(the fifth) is in line with the sound of“盍”, which shows this character is a pictophonetic character and be- longs to the group with the radical part“叶”.