There are several pronunciations for mortar

Mortar has 1 pronunciation: jiù.

Mortar (Pinyin: jiù) is a common standard first-level Chinese character (commonly used character). It first appeared in the writings of the Warring States Period. The original meaning refers to a pounding vat used for pounding rice, and by extension it is shaped like a mortar.

Mainly refers to two types of mashing tools with curved surfaces used together. The object with depressions or nests is called a mortar, and the object that actively moves for pounding is called a chōng.

Mortar is also one of the radicals of Chinese characters. In Chinese characters, most of the characters composed of the word "mortar" are related to mortar type or pit type, such as "ladle", "臽 (ancient character for sink)", "舂" and other characters.

Etymological evolution

Pictographs. This character first appeared in the writings of the Warring States Period. It resembles the shape of a pounding jar with grooves inside for pounding rice. The outside resembles the edge of a mortar and the inside resembles the groove pattern. In order to make the characters beautiful in seal script, the strokes indicating the mouth of the mortar are turned inward. In official script and regular script, in order to facilitate writing, the number of strokes indicating grooves was reduced to two.

The original meaning of this word refers to: a pounding vat used for pounding rice. "Shuowen": "Mortar, also known as mortar. In ancient times, people dug the ground to make a mortar, and then pierced the wood and stone." "Yi Xici Xia": "Broken wood is a pestle, and digging the ground is a mortar." (Pstle: chǔ, pounding rice. mallet). Later, it generally refers to a container used to smash things. "Shishuoxinyu·Jiewu": "Wei Wu tasted Cao E's stele and Yang Xiucong. On the back of the stele, there is an inscription of 'yellow silk young woman, grandson Junjiu'." It is also extended to the concave in the middle. Mortar.

"The Encyclopedia of Agricultural Affairs·Herding Six Livestock·Horse": "The talus is about to come out, the front bone is about to come out, and the front and back acetabulum are attached to the cicada." Mortar is also one of the radicals of Chinese characters. "Shuowen": "Every mortar belongs to the mortar." In Chinese characters, most of the characters composed of the word "mortar" are related to mortar type or pit type, such as "ladle", "臽 (ancient character for sink)", "舂" and other characters.

Chinese characters are a unique writing system for many dialects, and each character represents a syllable (ㄐㄧㄡˋ). China now uses Mandarin as the standard pronunciation. The syllables of Mandarin are determined by an initial consonant, a final and a tone (mortar: jiu4). More than 1,300 syllables are actually used.

Due to the large number of Chinese characters, there is an obvious phenomenon of homophones; at the same time, there are also cases where the same Chinese character has multiple pronunciations (such as: jiù), which is called polyphone. This situation has certain differences in different dialects, but it is common in Chinese.