3 ms·

Why is 1 = yāo? It is yi isn’t it?

• thaumasiotes 7y ago
  一 yi (tone varies based on phonological context) is the ordinary word for 1. 幺 yāo is a common word for 1 when vocalizing a stream of digits. (Such as a phone number / credit card number / account number / etc.) I am told that this originated as a way to easily distinguish 1 from 7 (七 qī) when communicating over a low-quality connection. In the presence of static, yi and qi could sound similar. CC-CEDICT has a good gloss ( https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=%E5%B9%BA https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=... ): > one (unambiguous spoken form when spelling out numbers, esp. on telephone or in military)
  • tluyben2 7y ago
    Thanks!