哑
yǎ · HSK 7
dumb
🐦 口 mouth + 亚 yà (phonetic) = a mouth that only caws or stays speechless: mute
Phono-semantic: the 口 mouth radical gives the meaning, 亚 (yà) lends the sound. Covers both senses: the cawing of a crow and a mouth that cannot form words, i.e. dumb or mute.
哑 — mouth 口 + 亚 (phonetic)
哑 is a phono-semantic compound. The mouth radical 口 signals a meaning related to speech or the mouth, while 亚 (yà) supplies the sound. It originally described someone unable to speak, hence 'mute,' and by extension came to mean 'hoarse' or a muffled, voiceless quality.