谣 (yáo): folk ballad; popular song witho…

Meanings

1 folk ballad; popular song without instrumental accompaniment
2 rumor; unfounded talk

Characters

谣

yáo

ballad; rumor

Examples

HSK 6

民间流传着许多关于这位英雄的歌谣。

Mínjiān liúchuán zhe xǔduō guānyú zhè wèi yīngxióng de gēyáo.

Many folk ballads about this hero have been passed down.

HSK 7-9

谣言止于智者。

Yáoyán zhǐ yú zhìzhě.

Rumors stop at the wise.

Tips

history

Classical definition: 有章句曰歌，无章曲曰谣 - 'a song with set verses is 歌, a song without is 谣'. So 谣 originally meant a chanted, unaccompanied folk song. Combine with 童 'child' to make 童谣 nursery rhyme; combine with 言 'speech' to make 谣言 rumor (talk that spreads like an unwritten song).

Components

radical

讠 yán

speech (radical form of 言)

The speech radical on the left marks 谣 as a verbal product - songs sung unaccompanied, or rumours passed mouth to mouth. It anchors the meaning in talk and indexes 谣 with 歌 song, 唱 sing, 说 say, 话 speech, 论 discuss.

phonetic

䍃 yáo

earthenware jug (here phonetic)

䍃 supplies the sound yáo unchanged. It originally depicted hands raising a clay pot, used here only for phonetic value. The same phonetic core also drives 摇 shake, 遥 distant, and 瑶 jade - every yáo syllable in the broader family rooted in this graph.