The original source of the character is An English-Chinese Lexicon of Medical Terms (Philip B. Cousland, Publication Committee, Medical Missionary Association of China, 1908, https://books.google.ca/books?id=P-kRAAAAYAAJ)
In response to Wang Yifan: while 母 itself does not have initial M, 母 is featured as (part of) a phonetic component in other words pronounced as syllabic m, such as 姆 ḿ and 梅 m̂.
Re: Andrew West
The word "puh" means "to bud; to sprout". The character is probably 會意, with 吐 having the meaning of "to stick out; to become visible" (as in phrases like 吐穗 or 吐絮 in Standard Mandarin).
IRG Working Set 2021v5.0
Source: LEUNG Justin Richard
Date: Generated on 2024-10-05
Labels
Evidence
p. iv
p. 373
《排斥凍霜新歌》(瑞成書局, 1933年), p. 1
《寧波方言詞典》(江蘇教育出版社, 1997年), p. 218
《建甌方言詞典》, (江蘇教育出版社, 1998), p. 155
《現代漢語方言大詞典》, (江蘇教育出版社, 2002), p. 370
《福州方言詞典》（江蘇教育出版社, 1998） p. 133
https://taiwanlanguage.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/查某•諸母（tsa-bɔˋ）──女人/), citing 《綜合閩南語、台灣語基本字典初稿》
Examples of 呣 used as m̄:
天韻合唱團: 呣免驚耶穌在此 M̄-bián Kiaⁿ Ia-so͘ Tī Chia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uE6NsGo_7Q)
華視新聞 CH52: 台灣諺語 - 項羽空有千斤力 呣值劉邦四兩命 Hāng Ú khong iú chhian kin la̍t, m̄-ta̍t Lâu Pang sì niú miā (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYT0fXDqr_I)
普通话闽南方言词典, p. 510 (福建人民出版社, 1982) (m̂ in 闽南话拼音方案 = m̄ in Pe̍h-ōe-jī):
Other
The word "puh" means "to bud; to sprout". The character is probably 會意, with 吐 having the meaning of "to stick out; to become visible" (as in phrases like 吐穗 or 吐絮 in Standard Mandarin).