Translingual

Stroke order

Alternative forms

• 訁／讠 (yán) (when used as a left Chinese radical)

Han character

言 (radical 149 言+0, 7 strokes, cangjie input 卜一一口 (YMMR), four-corner 0060₁)

1. Kangxi radical #149, ⾔ ‎(“speech”).

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/言
• 唁 誾 狺 這 獄

References

• KangXi: page 1146, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 35205
• Dae Jaweon: page 1612, character 20
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 6, page 3936, character 1
• Unihan data for U+8A00

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 言
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形) : Pictograph of words emerging from a mouth (口 (OC *kʰoːʔ)) or a man (辛 (OC *siŋ)) speaking with his mouth (口 (OC *kʰoːʔ))

Pronunciation

Definitions

言

1. (literary) speech, words
   • 語言 / 语言  ―  yǔyán  ―  language
   • 諾言 / 诺言  ―  nuòyán  ―  promise
   • 發言 / 发言  ―  fāyán  ―  to make a speech
   • 謠言 / 谣言  ―  yáoyán  ―  rumor
   • 洋洋萬言 / 洋洋万言  ―  yángyángwànyán  ―  to be very lengthy (of an article, essay)
2. message
   • 我能留個言嗎？ / 我能留个言吗？  ―  Wǒ néng liú ge yán ma?  ―  Can I leave a message?
3. to say, to speak, to talk
   • 言語 / 言语  ―  yányu  ―  to speak; to tell
   • 三思而後言 / 三思而后言  ―  sānsī ér hòu yán  ―  Think before you speak.
4. A surname​.

Compounds

References

• 言 in CEDICT on MDBG

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. to say
2. speech

Readings

• Goon: ごん (gon)
• Kan’on: げん (gen)
• Kun: こと (koto), いう (iu), ことば (kotoba)

Compounds

Etymology 1

From Middle Chinese 言 ‎(ngjon, “speech”).

Pronunciation

• On'yomi: Kan'on
• (Tokyo) げ​ん [géꜜǹ] (Atamadaka - [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [ɡẽ̞ɴ]

Noun

言 ‎(hiragana げん, romaji gen)

1. word
2. (linguistics) parole

Synonyms

• (parole): パロール ‎(parōru)

Etymology 2

Cognate with 事 ‎(koto, “thing”).^[3]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) こと​ [kòtóꜜ] (Odaka - [2])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [ko̞to̞]

Noun

言 ‎(hiragana こと, romaji koto)

1. word

References

1. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
3. ↑ 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, ISBN 4-09-501211-0

Korean

Hanja

言 • ‎(eon, eun) (hangeul 언, 은, revised eon, eun, McCune-Reischauer ŏn, ŭn, Yale en, un)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds

• 잠언 (箴言, jameon, “proverb”), 잠언 (箴言, Jameon, “Proverbs”)

Vietnamese

Han character

言 (ngôn, ngỏn, ngộn, ngổn, ngồn, ngủn)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.