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语

語
yǔ / yù
noun #1,470

Meanings

  1. 1 language; speech
  2. 2 words; expression
  3. 3 saying; proverb
  4. 4 signal that replaces speech

Examples

你会说几种语言？
Nǐ huì shuō jǐ zhǒng yǔyán?
How many languages can you speak?
汉语不难学。
Hànyǔ bù nán xué.
Chinese isn't hard to learn.
成语是中文的精华。
Chéngyǔ shì Zhōngwén de jīnghuá.
Idioms are the essence of Chinese.

Tips

usage
The 语 suffix names almost every language: 汉语 (Chinese), 英语 (English), 法语 (French), 日语 (Japanese). It also forms the core terms of linguistics: 语言 (language), 语法 (grammar), 成语 (idiom), 词语 (words/terms).
register
The everyday reading is 语 — 'language, speech, saying'. A rare literary reading 语 means 'to tell, to inform' and appears almost exclusively in classical texts (e.g. 不以语人 'do not tell others'). For modern compounds, always use 语.

Components

radical
讠 yán
speech (radical, left-side form of 言)
Left speech radical — the simplified side-form of 言. Marks 语 as a speech-and-language word. Same family populates almost every speaking verb: 说 to speak, 话 talk, 谈 discuss, 词 word, 译 translate.
phonetic
吾 wú
I, me (literary, phonetic)
Right side 吾 supplies the sound — wú drifted to yǔ, with the same 吾-phonetic series also producing 悟 to realize and 梧 parasol-tree. The literary 'I, me' meaning of 吾 is incidental, though learners sometimes use 'language of the I' as a memory aid for 'language' itself.

Stroke Order

语 yǔ