Dong Chinese dictionary

huà

speech

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 𠯑 represents the sound.

Components

言 Meaning component

yán

speech

𠯑 Sound component

guā

block the mouth

Modern form looks like 舌.

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠯑 than it was in ancient scripts.

Evolution

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Seal script

Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

huà

speech, talk, language; dialect; language; spoken words; speech; talk; words; conversation; what sb said; CL:種|种[zhǒng],席[xí],句[jù],口[kǒu],番[fān]

Most common words with 話

Sources