交谈
jiāotán · HSK 7
converse
💬 交谈 = 交 exchange + 谈 talk: trade talk back and forth
交 means exchange or interact, 谈 means talk or discuss. Together they mean two people swapping words back and forth: a conversation. 谈 carries the 讠 speech radical on its left edge.
交 — top 亠 + 父-like crossed legs
Originally a pictograph of a person standing with legs crossed, showing the idea of crossing or intersecting. From this concrete image, the meaning extended to abstract senses like 'exchange,' 'interact,' and 'hand over.' Modern uses such as 交流 (exchange) and 交通 (traffic) all trace back to this core notion of crossing.
谈 — speech radical 讠 + flame 炎
谈 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (speech) gives the meaning, indicating something said or discussed. The right side 炎 (flame, blaze) originally suggested the phonetic value and evokes lively, animated talk — like words flowing in conversation.