Originally the same as 言 (speech) but with an extra line added in the mouth (口) to distinguish the two characters.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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)
Simplified
Traditional
Original meaning: riverside
Depicts a person standing (頁) on the shore wading (涉) in shallow water. Based on the original meaning "riverside", now written as 瀕. The meaning later shifted to "continuous" and "repeatedly".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | bjin | [b]i[n] | frequently |
| bjin | [m-p]i[n] | river bank |
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica