~歌

~か · ~ka · JLPT N2 · noun

song of ~

🎵 歌 = 哥 + 欠 (open mouth): a mouth opened to sing, as in 国歌 kokka

欠 is a person with a wide-open mouth, and 哥 gives the sound. As a suffix, ~歌 (ka) marks a kind of song: 国歌 kokka is the national anthem, 校歌 kōka is a school song.

歌 — 哥 (phonetic 'gē') + 欠 (open mouth)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 欠 depicts a person with an open mouth, supplying the meaning of singing or vocalizing. The left side 哥 gives the sound 'gē'. Together they form the verb and noun for 'song' or 'to sing'.

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