唉
āiài HSK7

alas

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

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth

mouth

矣
矣 Sound component
yǐ, xián particle of completed action

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqʰlɯː
qɯː
qrɯː
qrɯːʔ

說文解字

《說文》:“唉,譍也。从口,矣聲。”

Sources

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