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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

音

yīn
sound; voice; tone
  • Ideogram
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 音
  • 9 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Ideogram (指事) – based on the structure of 言, with an additional short horizontal stroke inside the 口 (“mouth”), forming a shape similar to 甘. The Shuowen Jiezi describes the structure as 从言含一 ("from 言 containing 一").

The added stroke graphically seals the mouth, likely representing partially closed or muffled vocalization, in contrast with 言 (“articulate speech”). This is consistent with the *ʔəm word family, which clusters around meanings of covering and closure: compare homophones 瘖 (*ʔum) and 喑 (*ʔəmʔ, “mute”), and 韽 (*ʔˤəm, “faint, weak sound”).

See also 言.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese立 “to stand”
  • partChinese日 “Sun”

Related: Proto-Mon-Khmer *grəm(ʔ)

Words built on it: 響, 暗, 音樂, 聲音

Meanings

character
  1. sound; voice; tone
  2. news; tidings
  3. pitch; note (Classifier: 粒 c)
  4. pronunciation; syllable

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

音：聲也。生於心，有節於外，謂之音。宮商角徵羽，聲；絲竹金石匏土革木，音也。从言含一。凡音之屬皆从音。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 聲響。 例：噪音、雜音、餘音繞梁
  2. 腔調。 例：口音、鄉音
  3. 字的音讀。 例：字音、注音
  4. 消息。 例：回音、佳音、音信

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 音 was written 字形演變

  1. 音 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 音 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 音 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 音 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 音 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 音