Chinese character 娪

娪 means “woman”; one reading means “beautiful woman.”

Mandarin pinyin spells 娪’s readings wú, wù, and yú: the first two sound like “oo” with rising and falling pitch; yú starts with the rounded vowel in French tu and rises.

The Shuowen Jiezi, an early second-century CE character dictionary, omits 娪. The Han-era Fangyan gives yú for “woman” in Wu; Song-era Guangyun gives wú for “beautiful woman,” and Jiyun gives wù for “woman” in Qingzhou. 女 marks meaning; 吾 marks sound and links 娪 with 五’s historical phonetic series.