唧 (jī): chirping sound

Meanings

1 chirping sound
2 squeaking or chirping of insects or small birds
3 gurgling sound

Characters

唧

jī

(onomatopoeia) chirping / squeaking / gurgling

Examples

HSK 5

小鸟唧唧地叫个不停。

Xiǎoniǎo jījī de jiào gè bùtíng.

The little bird kept chirping without stopping.

HSK 7-9

草丛里传来唧唧的虫叫声。

Cǎocóng lǐ chuánlái jījī de chóng jiàoshēng.

The chirping sound of insects came from the grass.

Tips

usage

唧 is most commonly used in the reduplicated form 唧唧 to mimic the sustained chirping of crickets, birds, or insects. It appears in the famous Tang poem line 唧唧复唧唧 from the Ballad of Mulan, describing the sound of a loom.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical - pictograph of an open mouth. The standard sound-and-speech marker, clustering 唧 with 啊, 吧, 呀, 哇, 嘶 - small mouth-noise particles and onomatopoeias. Marks this character as a vocal effect: the chirp of a cricket or small bird, or the gurgling of liquid.

phonetic

即 jí

immediately; namely

Right 即 supplies the sound jí to jī with a tone shift. 即 itself depicts a person kneeling beside a food vessel, originally 'to draw near.' Carries no near-or-now meaning here; just the crisp short-i syllable suited to mimicking insect chirps and quick bird calls. Compare the doubled 唧唧, common in classical poetry for cricket sounds.