鳴

Primary sense is the vocalization of an animal, specifically birds (cry, call, song). This extends to:

• Resonant objects: The act of striking bells or metal instruments to produce sound, often with functional or ritual connotations (e.g., signaling time, announcing ceremonies, or issuing administrative alerts).
• Human application: Non-speech vocalizations—such as lamenting, wailing, or crying out in distress—or the metaphorical "sounding" of a grievance.

Predominantly verbal. It is intransitive when the subject is the source of the sound (e.g., a bird calling) and transitive when the object is the instrument being sounded (e.g., sounding a bell).

Contrast with 聲: while 聲 generally refers to the sound itself (the noun) or the general phenomenon of noise, 鳴 emphasizes the act of emitting the sound or the triggering of a resonance.

Tang-period reading: *miæng. Simplified variant: 鸣 (U+9E23).

Avoid translating as a noun ("a cry") unless the syntax explicitly supports it; the glyph typically denotes the action of sounding.