What is the story behind "peach kanji" 桃?


I wanna know why this kanji is containing the tree kanji 木 + the omen kanji 兆
? What is the relation between tree and omen to give us a kanji for the peach
? Is it a historical story?




In many _kanji_ , some of the components do not provide meaning, but only
sound.「桃」( _On'yomi_ : **とう** ) is made up of semantic「木」( _tree_ ) and
phonetic「兆」( _On'yomi_ : **ちょう** ).

> Remember: _Kanji_ were created for Chinese vocabulary, so the phonetic
> component is only relevant to _On'yomi_.

Here's some relevant vocabulary with these _On'yomi_ readings:

  * [桃花]{とうか} ( _peach blossom_ )

  * [吉兆]{きっちょう} ( _good omen_ )

* * *

> what is the relation between とう and ちょう readings

Phonetic components of _kanji_ are generally _approximations_. Due to the long
history and wide geographical spread of Chinese characters, the readings have
changed over space and time in China and even further changed in Japan.
Diverging pronunciations over space and time is natural, and is one of the
mechanisms behind the development of different accents from a single source
language.

**とう** and **ちょう** are _similar_ ; the initial consonant of **と** is **/t/**
(see [Voiceless dental and alveolar
stops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_and_alveolar_stops)) and
the initial consonant of **ちょ** is **/t͡ɕ/** (see [Voiceless alveolo-palatal
affricate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_alveolo-
palatal_affricate)), which are both [alveolar
consonants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_consonant), pronounced in
roughly the same parts of the mouth.

Related sounds are prone to changing into each other over time.




In many _kanji_ , some of the components do not provide meaning, but only
sound.「桃」( _On'yomi_ : **とう** ) is made up of semantic「木」( _tree_ ) and
phonetic「兆」( _On'yomi_ : **ちょう** ).

> Remember: _Kanji_ were created for Chinese vocabulary, so the phonetic
> component is only relevant to _On'yomi_.

Here's some relevant vocabulary with these _On'yomi_ readings:

  * [桃花]{とうか} ( _peach blossom_ )

  * [吉兆]{きっちょう} ( _good omen_ )

* * *

> what is the relation between とう and ちょう readings

Phonetic components of _kanji_ are generally _approximations_. Due to the long
history and wide geographical spread of Chinese characters, the readings have
changed over space and time in China and even further changed in Japan.
Diverging pronunciations over space and time is natural, and is one of the
mechanisms behind the development of different accents from a single source
language.

**とう** and **ちょう** are _similar_ ; the initial consonant of **と** is **/t/**
(see [Voiceless dental and alveolar
stops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_and_alveolar_stops)) and
the initial consonant of **ちょ** is **/t͡ɕ/** (see [Voiceless alveolo-palatal
affricate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_alveolo-
palatal_affricate)), which are both [alveolar
consonants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_consonant), pronounced in
roughly the same parts of the mouth.

Related sounds are prone to changing into each other over time.

