6857
I see the character 叉 in a lot of words that do not seem to have anything in
common:

> [夜叉]{やしゃ}
>
> [三叉路]{さんさろ}
>
> [叉焼]{チャーシュー}
>
> [音叉]{おんさ}

Is there any commonality here? What does 叉 represent? (Is the Chinese meaning
different than the Japanese meaning?)
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2012-09-19T21:15:20.640
6856
2012-09-19T22:02:04.407
1217
question
kanji etymology
Understanding of the character 叉
It looks like these are all related to the meaning "fork", except for 夜叉,
which appears to use the character for its sound.

  * 三叉路 The road _forks_ , going three ways
  * 音叉 A tuning _fork_
  * 叉焼 (Meat) roasted on a _fork_ [(Wikipedia link)](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC#.E4.B8.AD.E5.9B.BD.E3.81.AE.E5.8F.89.E7.84.BC%5d)

It appears that 夜叉 is a phonetic transcription of Yakṣa [(Wikipedia
link)](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%9C%E5%8F%89), using 叉 for its
sound. I don't know why those characters were chosen specifically.
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2012-09-19T22:01:54.513
6857
2012-09-19T22:01:54.513
6856
answer
There are two categories of words here: 1) 三叉路, 叉焼, 音叉 and 2) 夜叉.

In the first category, 叉 is used for its semantic value: a fork. In 三叉路, this
is a path or road that branches in three directions like the shape of a Y. In
叉焼, it is the pronged fork that the pork is attached to for cooking. In 音叉, it
is the U-shaped fork used in tuning sounds.

As for the second category, it has nothing to do with the semantic meaning of
the character but rather the phonetic value. In 夜叉, it is being used to
transliterate the Sanskrit word yakṣa (यक्ष).
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2012-09-19T22:02:04.407
6858
2012-09-19T22:02:04.407
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answer