唵嘛呢叭咪吽
ǎn​má​ní​bā​mī​hōng

om mani padme hum

唵 ǎn, ng, n used in Buddhist texts to transliterate non-Chinese sounds

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 奄 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
奄
奄 Sound component
yǎn, yān to enclose

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqoːmʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

嘛 ma, má final exclamatory particle

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 麻 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
麻
麻 Sound component
má, ma hemp

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

呢 ne, ní interrogative or emphatic final

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 尼 represents the sound. 口 (mouth) indicates that the character is only "mouthed", i.e. only used for its phonetic value.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
尼
尼 Sound component
ní, nǐ Buddhist nun

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangnil

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

叭 ba trumpet

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 八 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
八
八 Sound component
bā eight

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

咪 mī, miē, mǎi sound of cat

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 米 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
米
米 Sound component
mǐ rice

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

吽 hōng, hǒu, ōu 'OM'

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqʰoːʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica