Origin

The character 崎 combines the mountain radical 山 on the left, which shows this character describes a geographic landform, with 奇 on the right serving as a sound hint that guides the pronunciation. The mountain element makes sense because a promontory or cape is a pointed piece of land jutting out from a mountainous coast. The overall shape suggests a mountain with an angular or irregular peak, which matches how capes and peninsulas appear as distinctive jutting formations along coastlines. The 奇 component's main job is to signal how to pronounce the character rather than to add meaning to the definition.