Writing Balance Rule: The top component (公) should be wide and balanced, while the bottom component (羽) must spread its wings gracefully underneath without collapsing.
1. Meaning
elderly man
fatherfather-in-lawneck feathers of a birdsurname Weng
NounFormal / Literary#people#family#age#kinship
Sample Usage
老翁
lǎowēng
old man
渔翁
yúwēng
old fisherman
2. Sound
/[wəŋ⁵⁵]/Tone: 55
翁
wēngweng1
|
++
¯(55)
=wēng
Build the syllable
Step-by-step blending
weng
Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "e" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).
Initial Consonant
w
Type: Glide (w)
Sounds like: w (semi-vowel w sound)
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Round lips tightly before gliding into vowel.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips rounded tightly like blowing through a straw, tongue relaxed low in the mouth.
Final Rhyme
eng
Vowel Group: -e vowel group
Sounds like: -eng rhymes with -ung in sung
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'uhng'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T1 (55)
5 → 5 (55)
1st Tone (High-Flat)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 stays flat and high at the ceiling of your vocal range, much like a sustained musical note.
👂
Listening trap: Confusing it with the final '-eng' sound (like wěng); make sure to pronounce the back nasal '-ng' correctly rather than the dental/alveolar '-n'.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Keep your hand flat and steady at a high level in front of you, matching the high level pitch of Tone 1.
3. Writing
Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 10 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The top component (公) should be wide and balanced, while the bottom component (羽) must spread its wings gracefully underneath without collapsing.
4. Components
Radical羽 · Feather Radical (feathers, wings)
Semantic Clue (形旁):羽 (indicates bird neck feathers or the downy look of old age)
Phonetic Clue (声旁):公 (original sound: gōng/wēng)
An old man (公) with soft white neck feathers or down like a bird (羽) perched on his chin.
公 public / old gentleman / phonetic clue
羽 feathers / semantic base
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
6· Phonetic Root: 翁 (wēng)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Originally referred to the neck feathers of a bird, combining 公 (fair/old master) and 羽 (feathers). Later borrowed to mean an elderly man resembling a bearded, feathered sage.
Semantic Evolution: From bird feathers to an honorable title for elderly gentlemen, fathers, and fathers-in-law.
Famous classical literary references include 渔翁 (the old fisherman) in Tang poetry.
6. Sinosphere
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: オウ (ō) / Kun: おなご / おきな (okina)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
옹
Sound Shift Bridge: The -eng final corresponds to historical and cross-linguistic nasal endings in East Asian borrowings.
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
An esteemed public gentleman (公) with fluffy white beard hairs resembling bird feathers (羽) sits by the river as an old fisherman (翁).