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CUHK and Yellowbridge don't expound the semantic shift. I'm especially addled by the shift in lexical categories too, from a noun to an adverb.

Synopsis  : 從「人」，「堇」聲，用作副詞，表示才、只。

Elaboration: 從「人」，「堇」聲，用作副詞，表示才、只。《說文》：「材能也。从人，堇聲。」《國語‧周語中》：「今天降災於周室，余一人僅能守府。」

　　「僅」也指數量少。《公羊傳‧恆公三年》：「此其曰有年何？僅有年也。彼其曰大有年何?大豐年也。」何休注：「僅，猶劣也，謂五穀多少皆有，不能大成熟。」

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    It seems you are trying to find semantic connections for a phonetic component, or am I misunderstanding your question? It says in both your quoted entries that 堇 gives the sound, so why are you looking for a semantic relationship?
    – Olle Linge
    Sep 11, 2020 at 17:45
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    @OlleLinge I'm asking about the Semantic (not Phonetic) Component, 人.
    – user11787
    Sep 18, 2020 at 2:42

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+50

Outlier

1 (orig.) ability, talent
2 ○ only

Here the ○ icon is an indicator of a phonetic loan. So, basically it is just a:

character that is "borrowed" to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme

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