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You can spot that (the left-hand side of) 謠 originates from 言. I screenshot Yellowbridge.

  1. Did the phonetic component 䍃 spawn, or have anything to do with, the semantic narrowing from 言 to 謠?

  2. If not, what beget 謠's songful (#1, 2 below) and defamatory (#3) meanings that are more specific than 言?

  3. For example, consider 謠言. Couldn't 謠言 have been originally compounded as 言謠?

謠

  1. (alt. form 䚻, 繇, 猶‡) to sing without instruments
  2. (alt. form 䚻, 繇) folk song; ballad
  3. fake circulating words; fake rumour

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    This question doesn't make sense. The word represented by the character 謠 does not originate from the word represented by the character 言 (characters are not words, they are representations of words). Semantic narrowing only applies to one word (e.g. from the Wikipedia link, mouse rodent narrowing to mouse computer device), while 謠 and 言 are different words.
    – dROOOze
    Jul 31, 2020 at 17:10

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Did the phonetic component 䍃 spawn, or have anything to do with, the semantic narrowing from 言 to 謠?

"䍃" is a common 声旁, 谣 is a pictophonetic character (形声字), its pronunciation is from 䍃, 摇, 遥, 鹞 are pictophonetic characters from 䍃 too.

If not, what beget 謠's songful (#1, 2 below) and defamatory (#3) meanings that are more specific than 言?

What's 歌谣? Some words with tunes. What's 谣言? Fabricated words without facts. What's 言? Words. 言 is the meaningful part of pictophonetic character 谣.

For example, consider 謠言. Couldn't 謠言 have been originally compounded as 言謠?

"谣" is the "adjective" of "言". What type of words"言"? Uncertain or suspicious words. If it's 言谣, "言" and "谣" should be parallel.

Actually, I can't understand your exactly question because in fact, your question can be clearer.

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