but it's also used to
> >transliterate the "ka" sound in borrowed words like card (kapian), Qatar
>
> How is kapian borrowed "card"? Does "pian" represent a
> sound or a meaning or both?
One fairly common and traditional Chinese way of borrowing foreign words or names is to take an accented syllable -- or a part of the syllable that sounds accented to Chinese listeners -- and transliterate it with a character that has the same or a similar sound. Usually another word is
added to specify the meaning:
aMErica, for example, comes out Meiguo (Mei is as close as you can get to the accented "me" in America), and guo means "country." Similarly: Yingguo (England), Faguo (France -- "Fr" is impossible so they make do with just the
"f" sound and an "a" that suggests the French nasalized "an"), Deguo (Deutschland), etc.
So in _kapian_ , the "ka" suggests the "ca" sound in card, and pian (which means "slice" or stands for a measuring word for a flat tablet-like object) suggests the meaning.