[[Characters]] #Characters \ #Society-and-Culture \ #Language # 曰 yuē to say, to speak ## Components [[口 (kǒu)]] [[口 kǒu]] [[一 (yī)]] [[一 yī]] ## Meaning Today, the character "曰" (yuē) is rarely used in modern Chinese. Its function has largely been replaced by the simplified form "说" (shuō), which means "to say" or "to speak." However, in certain contexts or literary works, "曰" might still be encountered, retaining its original meaning of "to say" or "to speak." ## History The character "曰" (yuē) is a pictographic character. In its ancient form, the bottom part resembles a mouth, with a horizontal line above representing the breath released while speaking. This character evolved from oracle bone script to bronze script, and later to seal script, which eventually became the modern form "日" (rì). Its original meaning is "to say" or "to speak." As a radical, characters derived from "日" are mostly related to speaking or language. ## Evolution ### Oracular Script ![[曰 yuē - ora.svg]] ### Bronze Script ![[曰 yuē - bronce.svg]] ### Seal Script ![[曰 yuē - sello.svg]] ### Clerical Script ![[曰 yuē - cle.svg]] ### Regular Script ![[曰 yuē - reg.svg]]