tán

talk

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components
言 meaning component

  Meaning component

yán

  

speech

炎 sound component

  Sound component

yán

  

flame

Evolution

談 Seal script Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)

Seal script

Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
談 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
談 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
談 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
談 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

tán

talk; conversation; surname; to speak; to talk; to converse; to chat; to discuss

() 

Tán

surname Tan

Most common words with 談
Freq.
Word
Meaning

to speak

谈谈

to discuss

谈判

to negotiate

谈话

talk

会谈

talks

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*lˤ[o]m

dam

tán

speak


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 85.1193% of movies

228th most common character in movies

474th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

15

Simplified

Unicode

U+8AC7

Shuowen

“談,語也。从言,炎聲。”


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