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啁 is a phonosemantic compound used to represent the chirping, twittering, and similar vocal sounds of small birds. The left side, the mouth radical 口, signals that the character relates to speech, oral sounds, or animal calls. The right side, 周 (zhōu), acts solely as a phonetic marker, giving the character its pronunciation. It is most commonly seen in the binomial compound 啁啾 (zhōujiū), where it pairs with another phono-semantic character to vividly evoke the sound of a flock of birds chattering to one another.
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