yān

thereupon

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approved by Marcus Ngai · Mar 30, 2026, 10:44 AM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Mar 30, 2026, 10:44 AM

description, components, source

Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning, isVerified, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages

Original meaning: a type of bird

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "a type of bird", the current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Sound component
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jenʔa[n] how
hjen[ʔ]a[n] (atonic)(3p locative pronoun)

說文解字

《說文》:“焉,焉鳥,黃色,出於江淮。象形。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica