Oooh ma うま, ma ま! Dad bough-t バ me a

horse

!

My friend "Uma"「UMA うま」has the cutest *horse*! It has a long and , but really short . You'd almost expect to hear it "bah"「BA バ」since it blends in with the sheep!

The stroke order of the Japanese character is different from either Hong Kong or mainland Chinese, essentially an , with lines extending to the right for the mane and, requiring an extra stroke, for the , all poised over four galloping .

The /ma/ sound denoting horse is common to a number of languages of central Asia, where horses were first domesticated, and likely arrived with the animal as a loanword wherever horses were introduced. Compare Mandarin “mǎ” with Proto-Indo-European “márkos” and descendants such as English “mare.”

（If “mare” comes from /ma/, then where does “horse” come from? Its PIE root is *ḱr̥sós “vehicle,” which seems suspiciously similar to くるま, or rather, くるま seems suspiciously similar to PIE for vehicle + horse, but I’m probably trying to put the cart before the horse here.）

In Japanese, the initial /m/ sound of ま was apparently emphasized, possibly similar to *mma, becoming then バ or むま or うま.

馬（*mraːʔ）馬 碼 罵 鷌 鰢 瑪 榪 傌 禡 媽
バ← /maᵡ/ ← *mraːʔ

A for the horse's

Unlike a bird 鳥 a horse 馬 has a and a beautiful as it gallops.

The need to get on their HORSEs in the before the

The sheep goes BA, not the horse.
Every MAre has a , four and a .

Via 兔: Depicts a rabbit with floppy and a stubby on its . Remember, a rabbit TOE→ト is good luck.

The rabbit got caught in the of a snare. It escaped with except for a of blood on it's small toe{ト} . *leg injury, because one leg looks like a cane

The cat is but as delicate as a .

Doesn't this look like a cat? The cat's is , the cat's are , and the cat's is

This cat is like a it likes playing in the in the

I have a BIYOUtiful cat. He likes to get his dirty in the and he NEver KOmes home befor dinner. ow dare he.

Via 貓: The cat is a whose meow sounds like /ミョウ→ビョウ.

Cats are better at catching rodents in the of your than , and they have less body odor ビョウ too.

out, the cat hid in the ready to pounce its prey in the

A on a knocking over a

The cat's is curved, like the shoot of a .

A is chasing a CAT through the .

The creature in the of the is a cat.

cats have and a and love to

My

cat

likes to near my

Cats have and big to watch the mice go by.

Cats are the that are as small as a

That fluffy animal with this small for a nose is my dog.

A dog wagging its in profile. Early examples of this character resemble an unrotated 犭.

The English word KENnel →ケン comes from canine, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ, *ḱun-, from earlier *ḱwón-s, potentially related to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *d-kʷəj-n, hence Old Chinese *kʰʷeːnʔ, Middle Chinese /kʰiwenᵡ/, Old Japanese くゑん, and Modern Japanese ケン.

犬（*kʰʷeːnʔ）猚 畎 汱 甽 犬
ケン←くゑん← /kʰiwenᵡ/ ← *kʰʷeːnʔ

'e knew {いぬ} that the dog with a of slobber, was named Ken {ケン}

A holding their with their

When my boyfriend went to the KENnels {けん}, HE KNEW {いぬ} that he wanted a dog with a noise.

When I arrived at the kennel {ケンnel} to pick up my dog, he greeted me with wags of his .

A of dust caught the dog's eye.

I see a dog with a small !

guy throwing a for his DOG to bring it back.

**When 犭 to the left of a character - a Pack of Wild Dogs.**

The carries his on his shoulder.

the dog has a on it

"We knew"「いぬ」a dog that sure "can"「ケン」 catch a !

When the is up, it'll be curtains for the . Then we'll have pork for dinner.

Pork is the from a

pig

.

The ←家 or suckling pig is raised for ←肉, as opposed to the wild boar 猪.
The reading is associated with the right side of the character, possibly via 彖/タン→トン and/or 貒/タン→トン.
Despite being the phonetic component, 豕 is the radical, because つきへん is reserved for body parts.

In a when the grows they will sell pork.

A ago I bought a . It contains a ton トン of fat, but Boo taste ブタ this pork, it’s delicious!

Ideogram: Originally 肉 “meat” and meaning pig.
The of a is pork

, a , a and - the pig is standing on the

In the game "Don't Starve", there are living in houses {家}. They are peaceful, except during a full , during which they transform into monsters and attack the player.

A cow flattened by a steam roller. Found on cartons of milk *ぎゅうにゅう* 牛乳

Cow is basically noon 午 plus a little *head* sticking up on top: Here's how to remember the difference:

The cow has a head that sticks up in the middle. Noon does not have a head because it is an abstract concept, not a physical animal with 8 nipples.

At , the *cow* stretches its out to eat grass. When people eat *cow*, they call it beef. The best beef in the world is "wagyu"「GYŪ ギュウ」, and a recent trend is to use it for "sushi"「USHI うし」!

Cows love being outside at to eat grass. But in addition to that, they also have little horns sticking out at the top.
Cute!

Do not mistake HORSE and COW .
Remember that COWS have ^horns^.

**Primitive - when over another element, its tail is cut off ; when on the left .

The ox or cow is a UNGULATE→ギュウ with . See also 半.
Not related phonetically to any other character, except possibly 午/ゴ← /ŋuoᵡ/ ← *ŋaːʔ … *ŋʷɯ → /ŋi̯ə̯u/ →ギュウ.

The Ox 牛宿 is the second of the northern mansions of the Black Tortoise. Its primary asterism is six stars centered on the tail of Capricornus. Its determinative star is Dabih, the lucky star of the slaughterer.

A: WHO’S SHE {うし}?!
B: She’s the person who turns into GLUE {ぎゅう} …

The in Japan don't say moo, they say -gyuu-!
They even have a !

Pictogram: A bulls head. Which is the same as cow by species and by designation as “cattle” which also usually is the meaning as well.

The and the emphasized

When I took the by the it tried to pUSHI me out of the KIUUb.

The cow is learning how to spell but can't even write ギ . I think we're better off just turning her into ぎゅうにく

With the of its hair, the cow came in place at the race to the banquet, only because the rat rode on its head to take the spot.

in a to the .

wolf attacked sheep gaurded by dogs.

The sheep with and one big

Depicts the of a ram on a ungulate. Used for any caprid, such as sheep, goat, antelope, etc. Also written 𦍌, ⺶. Homonym of 陽. Compare 未, 羋.

羊（*laŋ）样 佯 詳 洋 翔 庠 祥 痒 姜 羌 蜣 猐 唴 羊 徉 烊 蛘 眻 鴹 恙 羕𣴎 樣様 漾瀁
ヨウ← /i̯aŋ/ ← *laŋ

The bird has less than

As a TREAt {とり} I wanted to have some Chicken Tonight, but I bought the wrong

bird

and ended up CHOking {ちょう} on it.

I saw the strangest *bird* yesterday. It was my turn to make dinner, and I "chose"「CHŌ チョウ」to make "yakitori"「TORI とり」. But the *chicken* at the butcher's shop wasn't right... it had a , a , and !

Looks like a chicken, which are birds, with & a feathery & small & chonky & a small pointing upwards.

Unlike a horse 馬 a bird has a and a on top.

Pictogram: A bird with a and a long .

As a phonetic bushu: チョウ、トウ.

chicken jumped right over the of a & &