Speech radical form

It marks speech or language inside a larger character.

言 appears on Shang-period oracle bones, bones inscribed for divination, and Western Zhou bronzes. Its early shape is debated: one reading sees a tongue and line as speech; another links a mouth sign with an oath-related element. Studies of chanting in the Shang–Zhou periods support a ritual setting. The Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese character dictionary, distinguishes 言 as a direct statement from 語 as debate or reply.

Traditional Chinese and Japanese use 訁 as the left-side form of 言; in Japan the radical is called 言偏. Simplified Chinese uses 讠 in that position.