言

See also: 訁 and 讠
言 U+8A00, 言
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-8A00
← 觿
[U+89FF]
CJK Unified Ideographs 訁 →
[U+8A01]
⾔ U+2F94, ⾔
KANGXI RADICAL SPEECH
← ⾓
[U+2F93]
Kangxi Radicals ⾕ →
[U+2F95]

Translingual

Stroke order
Japanese 言
Simplified 言
Traditional 言

Alternative forms

Note that in Japanese and Korean (printed forms), the 亠 component on top is written 二 (as found in the Kangxi dictionary). In traditional/simplified Chinese and Vietnamese, the top component is written 丶. In written Japanese, the top component may be written either 一, 丶 or 丨 (small vertical stroke).

Han character

言 (Kangxi radical 149, 言+0, 7 strokes, cangjie input 卜一一口 (YMMR), four-corner 00601, composition ⿳亠𠄠口(GHTV) or ⿱亖口(JK))

  1. Kangxi radical #149, ⾔.
  2. Shuowen Jiezi radical №56

Derived characters

See also

  • 訁/讠 (yán) (when used as a left Chinese radical).

References

  • KangXi: page 1146, character 1
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 35205
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1612, character 20
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3936, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+8A00

Chinese

simp. and trad.
言

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 言
Shang Western Zhou Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts

Ideogram (指事) : 言 was created by adding a mark to 舌 to indicate movement of the tongue.[1] This indicates speech where 舌 is a mouth (口) with a tongue sticking out.

Shuowen erroneously analyzes the glyph as a phono-semantic compound (形聲) : phonetic 䇂 (qiān) + semantic 口 (“mouth”).

Etymology

According to Schuessler (2007: 74) this word is derived from 語 (OC *ŋaʔ, “to speak”) + -n nominal suffix.

Pronunciation



  • Dialectal data
Variety Location 言
Mandarin Beijing /iɛn³⁵/
Harbin /ian²⁴/
Tianjin /ian⁴⁵/
Jinan /iã⁴²/
Qingdao /iã⁴²/
Zhengzhou /ian⁴²/
Xi'an /iã²⁴/
Xining /iã²⁴/
Yinchuan /ian⁵³/
Lanzhou /iɛ̃n⁵³/
Ürümqi /ian⁵¹/
Wuhan /iɛn²¹³/
Chengdu /ian³¹/
Guiyang /ian²¹/
Kunming /iɛ̃³¹/
Nanjing /ien²⁴/
Hefei /iĩ⁵⁵/
Jin Taiyuan /ie¹¹/
Pingyao /ȵie̞¹³/
Hohhot /ie³¹/
Wu Shanghai /ɦi²³/
Suzhou /ɦiɪ¹³/
Hangzhou /ɦiẽ̞²¹³/
Wenzhou /ȵi³¹/
Hui Shexian /ne⁴⁴/
Tunxi /ȵiɛ⁴⁴/
Xiang Changsha /iẽ¹³/
Xiangtan /ȵiẽ¹²/
Gan Nanchang /ȵiɛn⁴⁵/
Hakka Meixian /ŋian¹¹/
Taoyuan /ŋien¹¹/
Cantonese Guangzhou /jin²¹/
Nanning /jin²¹/
Hong Kong /jin²¹/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /gian³⁵/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /ŋyoŋ⁵³/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /ŋyiŋ³³/
Shantou (Min Nan) /ŋaŋ⁵⁵/
Haikou (Min Nan) /ŋin³¹/
/ŋin²¹³/ 俗
/kɔŋ²¹³/ 訓講

Rime
Character 言
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 疑 (31)
Final (韻) 元 (65)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) III
Fanqie 語軒切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/ŋɨɐn/
Pan
Wuyun
/ŋiɐn/
Shao
Rongfen
/ŋiɐn/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/ŋɨan/
Li
Rong
/ŋiɐn/
Wang
Li
/ŋĭɐn/
Bernard
Karlgren
/ŋɨ̯ɐn/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
yán
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex
jin4
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 言 言 言 言
Reading # 1/4 2/4 3/4 4/4
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
yán yán yán yán
Middle
Chinese
‹ ngjon › ‹ ngjon › ‹ ngjon › ‹ ngjon ›
Old
Chinese
/*ŋa[n]/ /*ŋa[n]/ /*ŋa[n]/ /*ŋa[r]/
English (a particle) I, we speak; speech tall

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 言
Reading # 1/1
No. 14271
Phonetic
component
言
Rime
group
元
Rime
subdivision
1
Corresponding
MC rime
言
Old
Chinese
/*ŋan/

Definitions

言

  1. to say; to speak; to talk
    言語/言语  ―  yányu  ―  to speak; to tell
    三思而後言/三思而后言 [Classical Chinese]  ―  sānsī ér hòu yán [Pinyin]  ―  Think before you speak.
  2. to discuss; to comment
  3. to state; to describe; to explain
  4. to write down; to record
  5. to ask; to inquire
  6. to inform; to tell; to let know
  7. spoken language; speech
    語言/语言  ―  yǔyán  ―  language
    諾言/诺言  ―  nuòyán  ―  promise
    發言/发言  ―  fāyán  ―  to make a speech
    謠言/谣言  ―  yáoyán  ―  fabricated rumor
    洋洋萬言/洋洋万言  ―  yángyángwànyán  ―  to be very lengthy (of an article, essay)
    我能留個言嗎?/我能留个言吗?  ―  Wǒ néng liú ge yán ma?  ―  Can I leave a message?
  8. opinion; view; perspective
  9. words; language appropriate to the occasion
  10. proposal; idea; plan
  11. government decree; order
  12. character; word
  13. sentence; writing; works
  14. † A meaningless sentence-initial mood particle.
  15. a surname

Synonyms

Compounds

References

Japanese

Kanji

言

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. to say
  2. speech

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
言
げん
Grade: 2
kan’on

From Middle Chinese 言 (MC ŋɨɐn, “speech”).

Pronunciation

Noun

言(げん) • (gen) 

  1. word
  2. (linguistics) parole
Synonyms
Antonyms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
言
こと
Grade: 2
kun’yomi

Cognate with 事 (koto, “thing”).[4]

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) こと​ [kòtóꜜ] (Odaka – [2])[1]
  • IPA(key): [ko̞to̞]

Noun

言(こと) • (koto) 

  1. word

References

  1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
  3. 2011, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Seventh Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  4. 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

Korean

Etymology 1

From Middle Chinese 言 (MC ŋɨɐn).

Historical readings

Pronunciation

Hanja

Wikisource 言 (eumhun 말씀 언 (malsseum eon))

  1. Hanja form? of 언 (“word”).
  2. Hanja form? of 언 (“speech”).

Compounds

Etymology 2

Related to Middle Chinese 誾 (MC ŋˠiɪn).

Hanja

言 (eumhun 심사화평할 은 (simsahwapyeonghal eun))

  1. (literary Chinese) Hanja form? of 은 (“peaceful demeanor”).

Compounds

References

  • 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전/電子字典.

Okinawan

Kanji

言

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. to say
  2. speech

Readings

Compounds

Noun

言 (hiragana くとぅ, rōmaji kutu)

  1. word

Vietnamese

Han character

言: Hán Nôm readings: ngôn, ngỏn, ngộn, ngổn, ngồn, ngủn

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
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