KANJI: KA uta (sing, song)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

At right, a radical from the character lack which is from a pictograph of a yawning, gaping mouth. At left, the radical meaning can (as in, what?), used here to express the phonetic sound, KA, doubled, ie; KA-KA. This was the ancient Chinese equivalent of (TRA-)LA-LA, and it indicated singing. Also, from its literal meaning of emerge from the mouth, the radical for can may of reinfroced the idea of a gaping mouth and thus we get KA-KA from a wide open mouth: singing.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: KA
kun-yomi: uta uta(u)

English Definitions:

1. KA, uta(u): sing, recite, chant, carol.
2. uta: poem, tanka, ballad, poetry; singing.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 2945
Henshall: 84

Unicode Encoded Version:

歌

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

歌人 (kajin): poet.
歌手 (kashu): singer.
短歌 (tanka): short verse.

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