哑

啞
yǎ
#2,363 most
frequent character
mute, dumb, incapable of speech

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

哑 yā has 口 mouth as meaning part and 亚 yà as sound part. It first meant laughter's sound. The surprise particle was borrowed for sound, and the yǎ reading, 'dumb, mute', is also a sound loan that grew to 'hoarse'.

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Same Characters, Different Readings

哑yā
(onom.) sound of cawing

Homophones

雅yǎ
elegant

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