to speak softly

Components

Sound component
qìng, kēng, shēng stone chimes
Meaning component
yán speech

speech

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkhengX[C.qʰ]ˤeŋʔcough, clear the throat
Zhengzhangkʰeːŋʔ
kʰeːŋs

說文解字

欬也。从言殸聲。殸,籒文磬字。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica