The kanji 唄 primarily represents "song," "singing," or "a song." It encapsulates the idea of vocal music, encompassing both the act of singing and the musical piece itself.

・On-yomi (音読み): Ba (バ) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): うた (uta)

⚫︎民謡唄 Translation: Folk song ⚫︎童謡唄 Translation: Children's song ⚫︎唄う Translation: To sing

The kanji 唄 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). The right side of the character is the phonetic component, 貝 (bai), representing a sound. The left side is the radical 口 (kuchi), meaning "mouth." This structure suggests that the kanji originated from a character that combines the mouth and the "bai" sound. Over time, the character came to denote something related to the mouth, specifically singing and songs.