KANJI: GO GYO kata (speech, tell, language, talk, word)

ASCII Art Representation:

              ,%%,                       ,%%,
  "%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  "%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
                              %%%%
                             ,%%%"
               ,%%,          %%%%      ,,
"%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  ,,,,,,,%%%%,,,,,%%%%,
                       """""%%%%""""""%%%%"
                            %%%%      %%%%
              ,%%,          %%%%      %%%%
 "%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%        ,%%%"      %%%%
                           %%%%       %%%% ,%%,
                   "%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
              ,%%,
 "%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
                       %%,,             ,%%,
                       %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
  %%,,        ,%%,     %%%%             %%%%
  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%    %%%%             %%%%
  %%%%        %%%%     %%%%             %%%%
  %%%%        %%%%     %%%%             %%%%
  %%%%        %%%%     %%%%             %%%%
  %%%%        %%%%     %%%%             %%%%
  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%     %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
  "%%"        "%%"     "%%"             "%%"

Character Etymology:

The radical on the left if the radical meaning words. In an older version of this character, the radical at left used to be two reels (see five) which expressed the idea of, being equal or, being well matched; this connotation eventually led to this characters use as the first person pronoun as, one who is a preson just like anyone else.

However before the first person pronoun meaning was adopted this character originally meant to match someone verbally, i.e. in an argument or similar, but it later came to mean to speak well and then just speech/talk/tell in general.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: GO GYO
kun-yomi: kata(ru) kata(rau)

English Definitions:

1. GO: word, speech, language, term.
2. GYO, kata(ru): talk, tell, narrate, recite.
3. kata(rau): talk, chat; pledge one's troth; invite, entive; win; consipre with.
4. kata(rai): talk, chat; lover's vow.
5. kata(ri): narrative (in the noh); reciter.
6. -go: (technical) term; language.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 5628
Henshall: 112

Unicode Encoded Version:

語

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

語り手 (kata(ri)te):
語学 (gogaku): the study of language, languistics.
日本語 (nihongo): Japanese language.
中国語 (chuugokugo): Chinese language.

  Previous: behind  |  Japanese Kanji  |  Next: work