Origin

This character combines two visual elements to express the idea of "who." The left side is a radical meaning "speech" or "words," which in Japanese characters often indicates concepts related to communication and questioning. The right side depicts a bird, which serves as a phonetic hint—it roughly suggests how the character should be pronounced. Together, the combination of "speech" with this phonetic element creates a character that asks "who?" or refers to someone unspecified. Over time, these components fused into a single character used whenever Japanese speakers need to ask about a person's identity.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).