外语
wàiyǔ · HSK 1
foreign language
🌍🗣️ 外 = outside + 语 = language → speech from outside
外 (wài) means outside or foreign; 语 (yǔ) means language or speech. Together they literally mean outside-language, i.e. a foreign language. The 讠 radical on 语 marks it as speech-related.
外 — evening 夕 + divination 卜
Originally a compound of 夕 (evening) and 卜 (divination). Ancient Chinese divinations were performed in the morning; doing them at evening (夕) was considered irregular or 'outside' the norm. From this sense of deviation, 外 came to mean 'outside' or 'external'.