Character: 云
Modern (Beijing) reading: yún
Preclassic Old Chinese: wǝn
Classic Old Chinese: wǝn
Western Han Chinese: wǝn
Eastern Han Chinese: wǝn
Early Postclassic Chinese: wɨn
Middle Postclassic Chinese: wɨn
Late Postclassic Chinese: wɨn
Middle Chinese: ɦün
English meaning : to say
Russian meaning[s]: 1) говорить, сказать (что-л.); гласит следующее..., а именно...; 2) конечная частица в вэньяне, обычно завершает прямую речь или цитату; 3) древн. начальная частица так, вот так; таков; 4) древн. облако, вм. 雲; 5) Юнь (фамилия)
Shuowen gloss: 古文省雨.亦古文雲. [575]
Comments: The character was the original drawing of *whǝn 'cloud' (see 雲). The meaning "to say" is attested already in inscriptions (see Schüssler 800), and must have been a loan of the character for a word related to 曰 *wat, 謂 *wǝts 'say, speak'. These words have *w- (cf. 曰 Fuzhou uak8, uok8, Jianou ua6; 謂 Xiamen ui6, Fuzhou oi6, Chaozhou ui4), therefore the reconstruction *wǝn seems the most plausible.
During the Eastern Zhou period, however, the character is used only to denote a homonymous modal (?) particle, the meaning of which is much debated. Schüssler (ibid.) thinks it may have been derived from 有 *whǝʔ and mean "there being it, happen that, come to", but most commentators prefer simply to ignore it in translations.
Radical: 7
Four-angle index: 8660
Karlgren code: 0460 a
Shijing occurrences: 3.4, 33.3, 38.4, 47.1, 48.1, 48.2, 48.3, 50.2
