Difference between 呟く and 囁く


I understand that both 呟く and 囁く mean "whisper", but are there any subtle
differences?




This seems like the kind of question that should be answerable with simple
dictionary lookups in English, but it doesn't actually seem to be. Jisho in
particular does very little to disambiguate here.

Fortunately, [monolingual
dictionaries](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/10742/meaning/m0u/) are much
more helpful.

> 「呟く」は、小さな声でひとりごとを言う意。聞き手は必要としない。一方、「囁く」は、周囲に聞こえぬよう、相手だけに小さな声で話す意。
>
> 「呟く」refers to talking to oneself in a quiet voice. No listener is necessary.
> On the other hand, 「囁く」refers to speaking to a someone in a quiet voice such
> that it cannot be heard by people nearby.

Basically, you want `囁く` when you are talking about whispering something to
someone. `呟く` on the other hand is also often translated as `mumble` or
`mutter`, English words which better express the idea that the thing being
said is not intended to be heard by anyone but the speaker. `呟く`also happens
to be the verb used for tweeting on twitter, which makes some sense if you
think about tweets not being aimed at a particular person.

[This question](https://hinative.com/ja/questions/12794806) also addresses
some of these differences, though it's entirely in Japanese.




This seems like the kind of question that should be answerable with simple
dictionary lookups in English, but it doesn't actually seem to be. Jisho in
particular does very little to disambiguate here.

Fortunately, [monolingual
dictionaries](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/10742/meaning/m0u/) are much
more helpful.

> 「呟く」は、小さな声でひとりごとを言う意。聞き手は必要としない。一方、「囁く」は、周囲に聞こえぬよう、相手だけに小さな声で話す意。
>
> 「呟く」refers to talking to oneself in a quiet voice. No listener is necessary.
> On the other hand, 「囁く」refers to speaking to a someone in a quiet voice such
> that it cannot be heard by people nearby.

Basically, you want `囁く` when you are talking about whispering something to
someone. `呟く` on the other hand is also often translated as `mumble` or
`mutter`, English words which better express the idea that the thing being
said is not intended to be heard by anyone but the speaker. `呟く`also happens
to be the verb used for tweeting on twitter, which makes some sense if you
think about tweets not being aimed at a particular person.

[This question](https://hinative.com/ja/questions/12794806) also addresses
some of these differences, though it's entirely in Japanese.

