鸦 (yā): crow; raven (any of the larger…

Meanings

1 crow; raven (any of the larger black birds in genus Corvus)

Characters

鸦

yā

crow (radical 鸟 'bird' + phonetic 牙 'tooth')

Examples

几只鸦停在枯枝上。

Jǐ zhī yā tíng zài kū zhī shàng.

Several crows perched on the bare branches.

教室里鸦雀无声。

Jiàoshì lǐ yāquèwúshēng.

The classroom was utterly silent (lit. 'not a sound from crow or sparrow').

Tips

culture

In Chinese culture crows traditionally have an unlucky association (a sign of death or bad news), opposite of magpies (喜鹊) which signal good news. The character 鸦 = 牙 ('tooth', phonetic) + 鸟 ('bird'). The compound 乌鸦 (wūyā) is the modern everyday word for 'crow' — 鸦 alone is more literary.

memory

Common idioms: 鸦雀无声 'silent as if no crow or sparrow speaks' (dead quiet), 涂鸦 'to scribble; graffiti' (lit. 'to smear like a crow walks').

Components

radical

鸟 niǎo

bird

鸟 is the indexing simplified bird radical (鳥 in traditional form), a stylised long-tailed bird with crest. It tags 鸦 in the bird family alongside 鸡 (chicken), 鸭 (duck), 鹅 (goose), 鹰 (eagle). The radical signals: this is the name of an avian species — here, the crow.

phonetic

牙 yá

tooth; tusk

牙 (yá) on the left supplies the sound — initial preserved, rime preserved, tone shifted to first (yā). Same phonetic powers 芽 (sprout), 蚜 (aphid), 讶 (surprised), 雅 (elegant). Pure sound-marker; the tooth-shape carries no meaning here, just the yā reading that mimics a crow's harsh caw.