勞勞

Chinese

		toil	toil
trad. (勞勞)		勞	勞
simp. (劳劳)		劳	劳

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): láoláo

  (Zhuyin): ㄌㄠˊ ㄌㄠˊ

• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): lò-lò

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: láoláo
    • Zhuyin: ㄌㄠˊ ㄌㄠˊ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: láoláo
    • Wade–Giles: lao²-lao²
    • Yale: láu-láu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: laulau
    • Palladius: лаолао (laolao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /lɑʊ̯³⁵ lɑʊ̯³⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: lò-lò
    • Hakka Romanization System: loˇ loˇ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: lo² lo²
    • Sinological IPA: /lo¹¹ lo¹¹/

---

• Middle Chinese: law|lawH law|lawH

Rime
Character	勞	勞
Reading #	1/2	2/2
Initial (聲)	來 (37)	來 (37)
Final (韻)	豪 (89)	豪 (89)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open	Open
Division (等)	I	I
Fanqie	魯刀切	郎到切
Baxter	law	lawH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/lɑu/	/lɑuH/
Pan Wuyun	/lɑu/	/lɑuH/
Shao Rongfen	/lɑu/	/lɑuH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/law/	/lawH/
Li Rong	/lɑu/	/lɑuH/
Wang Li	/lɑu/	/lɑuH/
Bernard Karlgren	/lɑu/	/lɑuH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	láo	lào
Expected Cantonese Reflex	lou4	lou6

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*[r]ˤaw|[r]ˤaw-s  [r]ˤaw|[r]ˤaw-s/

  (Zhengzhang): /*raːw|raːws  raːw|raːws/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	勞	勞
Reading #	1/2	2/2
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	láo	lào
Middle Chinese	‹ law ›	‹ lawH ›
Old Chinese	/*[r]ˁaw/	/*[r]ˁaw-s/
English	toil	to reward for toil
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	勞	勞
Reading #	1/2	2/2
No.	7647	7657
Phonetic component	勞	勞
Rime group	宵	宵
Rime subdivision	1	1
Corresponding MC rime	勞	嫪
Old Chinese	/*raːw/	/*raːws/

Adjective

勞勞

1. worried

   • 舉手長勞勞，二情同依依。 [MSC, trad.]
     举手长劳劳，二情同依依。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 《玉臺新詠•古詩＜為焦仲卿妻作＞》

     Jǔshǒu cháng láoláo, èr qíng tóng yīyī. [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. laborious
3. sparse
4. noisy

Derived terms

• 勞勞叨叨／劳劳叨叨

 

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 勞勞 – see 遼遼 (“distant”). (This term is a variant form of 遼遼).