漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
声: voice
JLPT N37 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met
7 strokes
Oracle bone · Shang Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Four readings, and the words that use each
セイsei · on'yomi · in compounds
- 発声するはっせいするmake an utterance
- 音声おんせいvoice, sound
- 名声めいせいfame
- 擬声語ぎせいごonomatopoeia
- 声援せいえんcheering
ショウshou · on'yomi
- 大音声だいおんじょうvery loud voice
こえkoe · kun'yomi · on its own
- 声こえvoice
- 大声おおごえloud voice
- 小声こごえlow voice
こわ-kowa- · kun'yomi
- 声色こわいろtone of voice
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)殸 (sound) + 耳 ear (meaning)
Phono-semantic compound (形聲): phonetic 殸 + semantic 耳 (“ear”) and ideogramic compound—an ear hearing a chime being struck.
Source: Wiktionary, 聲 (rev. 92777298), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Samurai (士) + a flag/ear variant. Originally suggested the "voice" of a high-ranking "official" (samurai) giving a formal command or announcement.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
In ChineseSimplified, as in Japanese · traditional 聲 · shēng
Japan uses the same simplified form as mainland China, 声. Taiwan and Hong Kong write 聲.
- Simplified
- 声 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 聲 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin shēng most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.
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