喳 (zhā): (onomatopoeia) chirp / twitter

Meanings

1 (onomatopoeia) chirp / twitter
2 (historical) yes, sir (Manchu reply)

Characters

喳

zhā

chirp / "yes sir" (Manchu)

Examples

小鸟在树上喳喳叫。

Xiǎoniǎo zài shùshàng zhāzhā jiào.

The little birds were chirping in the tree.

太监答道：「喳！」

Tàijiàn dá dào: " Zhā! "

The eunuch answered, "Yes, Your Majesty!"

Tips

history

In Qing-dynasty palace dramas you constantly hear servants reply 喳! to the emperor. It transliterates the Manchu word "je" meaning "yes / understood." Outside that historical setting it is purely the onomatopoeia for bird chirping (alt. reading chā).

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical (Kangxi #30) — pictograph of an open mouth. Indexes 喳 in the sound-and-speech family with 唧 (chirp), 哇 (wow), 啊 (ah), 喊 (shout). The mouth radical signals that whatever the right side spells out is to be pronounced as a noise, not interpreted for content.

phonetic

查 chá

examine; check (here phonetic)

Right 查 supplies the sound (chá → zhā, retroflex shift). 查 standalone means 'examine,' but here it contributes no semantics. 喳 is onomatopoeic: 叽叽喳喳 chirping/chattering of small birds, or 喳喳 a hushed whisper. The doubled form is by far the most common usage, capturing the patter of small repeated sounds.