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Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC 
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC 
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD Regular Modern
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Phonosemantic compound. 欠 (pictograph of a person opening their mouth) represents the meaning and 哥 represents the sound.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ka | [k]ˤaj | sing, song |
說文解字
《說文》：“歌，詠也。从欠，哥聲。謌，謌（歌）或从言。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.696
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)