呜咽
wū yè · HSK 7
to sob
😭 both halves carry 口 (mouth); 呜 wū is the woo-hoo sob sound a mouth makes
呜 = 口 mouth + 乌, an onomatopoeia for a low woo wail; 咽 = 口 mouth + 因 (cause). Two mouth-radical characters chained for the choked, whimpering sound of sobbing.
咽 — mouth 口 + cause 因 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 口 (mouth) gives the meaning, while 因 supplies the sound. It originally referred to the throat or pharynx, the passage in the mouth. The senses 'to swallow' (yàn) and 'choked with emotion' (yè) developed from this anatomical core meaning.