鸯
yāng

female mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)

Phonosemantic compound. 鸟 represents the meaning and 央 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鴦.

Components

鸟
鸟 Meaning component
niǎo bird
央
央 Sound component
yāng beg

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

鴦 female mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 鳥 represents the meaning and 央 represents the sound.

Components

鳥
鳥 Meaning component
niǎo bird
央
央 Sound component
yāng beg

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartʔjangʔaŋfemale mandarin duck
Zhengzhangqaːŋ
qaŋ
Unicodeqiɑng

說文解字

鴛鴦也。从鳥央聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)