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咿呀學語

简咿呀学语 · 繁咿呀學語

Mandarin · pinyin yī yā xué yǔ

(of a baby) to babble

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Characters in this entry

咿: yī · descriptive of creaking; laugh
呀: ya · particle used to express surprise or mild emphasis; (Cant.) slurred form of the number ten
學: xué · learning, knowledge; school
語: Look up this written character
学: xué · learning, knowledge; school
语: yǔ · language, words; saying, expression

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–2–3 · yi1 ya1 xue2 yu3

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

咿呀學語 · find source passages ↗ · 咿呀学语 · find source passages ↗

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

(of a baby) to learn to speak by babbling

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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