About
The character 鸸 is used solely in the compound 鸸鹋, referring to the emu (a large flightless bird native to Australia). Its traditional form 鴯 is a phono-semantic compound: the radical 鳥 ('bird') indicates the semantic category, and 而 (ér) supplies the pronunciation. The simplified form 鸸 replaces 鳥 with 鸟, while the phonetic 而 remains unchanged. Created to approximate the sound of a foreign name for a non-native species, 鸸 carries no independent meaning or historical usage beyond this compound.
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