語
yǔyù

language

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 吾 represents the sound.

Components

言
言 Meaning component
yán speech
吾
吾 Sound component
wú, yú, yá I, me

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartngjoXŋ(r)aʔ speak
ngjoHŋ(r)aʔ-s tell

說文解字

《說文》：“語，論也。从言，吾聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

语 yǔ language Simplified

Simplified form of 語. Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 吾 represents the sound.

Components

讠
讠 Meaning component
yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

吾
吾 Sound component
wú, yú, yá I, me

Sources

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