呱
guāgūguǎ

wail

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 瓜 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
瓜
瓜 Sound component
guā melon

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkukʷˤawail
Zhengzhangkʷaː

說文解字

小兒嗁聲。从口瓜聲。《詩》曰：“后稷呱矣。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)