咗

咗 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 口大一 (RKM), composition ⿰口左)

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 185, character 21
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 599, character 4
• Unihan data for U+5497

Phono-semantic compound (形聲) : semantic 口 (“mouth”) + phonetic 左

First attested in 《散語四十章》 (1877) as 唨. This word replaces earlier 嘵／哓 (hiu¹) in standard Cantonese.

Probably from 著／着 (Cheung, 1997; Chan, 1998; Fan and Chan, 2022); the pronunciation may be due to influence from Mandarin zhuó (Chan, 1998) or colloquial tonal modification to a high-rising tone (Cheung, 1997).

Chan (1995) proposes that the original character is 𧇣 (MC d͡zuo^H, “to go”); others (including Jimmy Pang and Chapman Chan) have similarly proposed 徂 (MC d͡zuo, “to go”) to be the original character. These derivations are phonologically and semantically problematic.

咗

1. (Cantonese) Used to emphasise an action which has been completed and whose result still applies to the present situation. It roughly translates to the past tense in English. [from 19th c.]

   佢哋啱啱走咗。 [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]

   keoi⁵ dei⁶ ngaam¹ ngaam¹ zau² zo². [Jyutping]

   They left just now.

   阿媽尋日煲咗湯。佢而家去咗超級市場買餸。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   阿妈寻日煲咗汤。佢而家去咗超级市场买𩠌。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   aa³ maa¹ cam⁴ jat⁶ bou¹ zo² tong¹. keoi⁵ ji⁴ gaa¹ heoi³ zo² ciu¹ kap¹ si⁵ coeng⁴ maai⁵ sung³. [Jyutping]

   My mum made soup yesterday. Now, she has gone grocery shopping in the supermarket.

   食咗就冇 [Cantonese]  ―  sik⁶ zo² zau⁶ mou⁵ [Jyutping]  ―  if you eat it there will not be any more

   • 你知佢去邊處唔呢出唨街去嘵街 [Cantonese, trad.]
     你知佢去边处唔呢出唨街去哓街 [Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 1877, 《散語四十章》, chapter 3

     nei⁵ zi¹ keoi⁵ heoi³ bin¹ syu³ m⁴ ne¹ ceot¹ zo² gaai¹ heoi³ hiu¹ gaai¹ [Jyutping]

     Do you know where he is going? He went out, went out

咗

1. A chant sound made while working.