翘舌音
qiào​shé​yīn

retroflex

翘 qiào turn up Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 羽 represents the meaning and 尧 represents the sound. Simplified form of 翹.

Components

羽
羽 Meaning component
yǔ feather
尧
尧 Sound component
yáo a legendary ancient emperor-sage

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

舌 shé tongue

Depicts a tongue sticking out of a mouth.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a tongue.

口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 6 verified)

适恬蛞鸹栝鴰

Simplified (4)

敌乱辞讠

Meaning (1 of 4 verified)

甜舔舐聒

Iconic (3)

言讠訁

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

憩

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzyetmə.lat tongue

說文解字

《說文》：“舌，在口所以言也，別味也。从千，从口，千亦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.145
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

音 yīn sound

Originally the same as 言 (speech) but with an extra line added in the mouth (口) to distinguish the two characters.

Components

言
言 Iconic component
yán speech

Depicts a tongue sticking out of the mouth.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 言 than it was in ancient scripts.
◎
◎ Distinguishing component
characterless component

Mark to distinguish 音 from 言.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

暗黯谙歆喑窨揞諳

Meaning (2 of 5 verified)

意韵韶響韻

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'im[q](r)əm sound, tone

說文解字

《說文》：“音，聲也。生於心有節於外謂之音；宮商角徵羽聲；絲竹金石匏土革木音也。从言，含一。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.164-165
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

翹 qiào turn up Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 羽 represents the meaning and 堯 represents the sound.

Components

羽
羽 Meaning component
yǔ feather
堯
堯 Sound component
legendary ancient emperor-sage

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartgjiew[ɡ]ew (failure to palatalize is unexplained)long tail-feather; raise
Zhengzhangɡew
ɡews
Unicodeghiɛu

說文解字

尾長毛也。从羽堯聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)