一切經音義 35.71

35.71

Gums and palate (The first character is niú + jīn fanqie. The Wenzidian says: 'The root of the teeth.' The Shuowen says: 'The flesh of the teeth.' It takes 'tooth' with jīn as phonetic. As for the character è [palate], neither the Yupian, Shuowen, nor any other character book contains this character. In vulgar usage it is pronounced wǒ + gè fanqie. Modern rime books, following vulgar usage, sometimes write it with 'flesh' with è as phonetic, which is also a vulgar character, though it has been used in the world for a long time. Upon examination, è is the upper palate inside the mouth. The Shuowen states: 'The upper bend of the mouth.' It takes 'mouth' and gǔ, pronounced qiáng + lüè fanqie; it is a pictograph depicting overlapping figures of eight on the roof of the mouth, depicting the patterns of the upper palate; it is also an ideogram).