訁

marks characters having to do with speech · Kangxi radical 149 · variant of 言

marks characters having to do with speech, words, and things done with language

The old graph shows a mouth with something rising out of it — usually read as a tongue, or as a sound coming up from between the lips, drawn with a mark or two above the mouth shape. In the modern form the 口 at the bottom is still the mouth, and the strokes stacked above it are the flattened remains of that tongue-and-sound picture. As the left-hand element of a character it is squeezed narrow into 訁, a short top stroke, a small stack of horizontals, and a tiny mouth at the base.

訁 at a glance

Meaning

marks characters having to do with speech

Strokes

7

Kangxi radical

149

Variant of

言

Frequently asked questions