Dong Chinese dictionary

yán

speech

Component form of 言, which is a pictograph of a tongue (舌) sticking out of a mouth.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts movement of the tongue coming out of the mouth.

舌 Iconic component

shé

tongue

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 舌 than it was in ancient scripts.

Definitions

yán

KangXi radical 149; "speech" or "words" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 149); see also 言字旁[yánzìpáng]

Sources