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I have seen a lot of kanjis with two dots on the top as in 前、咲く、呼ぶ、etc. What
is that radical? In <http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/>, I see they have
mentioned this two dot radical in their list, but when I look it up in any
proper Kangxi radical chart, I see no such radical.

Is it a combination of two ´「てん」? If it is, how do such dots make any meaning?
Another similar example in this regard would be the "diagonal sweeping stroke"
in kanjis like 呼ぶ and 町. How to arrive at meanings with such radicals?
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kanji radicals
What is the radical which is written by two dots on the top of a Kanji?
This boils down to the question "What is a radical?"

In the loose sense, it's any part of a kanji, which occurs in a number of
characters.

In some stricter sense, it's one of the 214 kanji radicals that have been used
to index kanji characters ever since they appeared in the 1615 Zihui 1716
Kangxi Dictionary dictionaries.

For searching by applying a filter, having more radicals means more options to
narrow down the characters to find the one you are looking for.

The radicals in the latter, stricter sense have a Japanese name. In general,
the others don't.

Whether you consider a part of a kanji a radical or not, you can often
describe parts either in terms of other kanji or in terms of katakana
characters. This is because katakana characters are derived from kanji in the
sense that they are precisely only a small characteristic part of a full
character. Notably, ソ derives from the two dots on 曽. So any such dots can be
said to "be" ソ.

For example, the 偕成社 6th year 漢字練習ノート says for 呼ぶ

> くちへんに ノ ソ よこ一で たてまげはねる

Most if not all occurrences of the ソ "radical" are derived from the 八 radical
(which is a radical in the strict sense), so 曽 itself has 曾 as traditional
variant. In this sense ソ "is" also 八.
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In all three, the two dots are 八. As an element in other characters, 八 often
appears upside-down; sometimes it depends on the particular font which way it
faces.

As for meaning, we can consult a variety of sources, but they all agree on the
basics: [Zhongwen.com](http://zhongwen.com/cgi-bin/zipux2.cgi?b5=%A4K)
describes 八 as "an ideograph representing division". Henshall says it
symbolizes "splitting/dividing", and is often found in compounds with a
meaning of "divide/disperse/away/out".
[ChineseEtymology.org](http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E5%85%AB)
says that it's a primitive pictograph with two lines indicating "separation".

But note that strictly speaking each character has only one 部首, because 部首 are
a system for indexing characters in dictionaries, and each character appears
under only one 部首 in most dictionaries. So although 八 is a Kangxi radical, not
all characters containing it are listed under 八.
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answer
[はちがしら / hachigashira](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_12)

however, the 部首 of your examples are:  
前 = りっとう  
咲 = くちへん  
呼 = くちへん

Trying to derive meaning from radicals can be a fool's errand in many cases.
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The radical「丷」is a component form of「八」. As mentioned in the other answers,
radicals are a way of indexing characters only - their presence does not imply
that the radical is part of the _Kanji_ 's history or provide any function to
the _Kanji_ at all, and there is no contribution of meaning
of「丷」towards「前」,「咲」,「呼」. Note that their radicals (section headers in
dictionaries) are:

  * 刀/刂 for 前;
  * 口 for 咲 and 呼

However, calling all appearances of「丷」as component forms of「八」, especially in
non-radical contexts, is very dubious. Characters which originally
contained「丷」were almost universally turned into「八」in the Kangxi Dictionary
printed form of characters, possibly for aesthetic purposes, whereas before
they were kept separate. Since most modern Chinese character dictionaries
inherit Kangxi radicals, the confusion continues to this day. As far as I can
recall, the only semantic contribution of the component「八」( _to split_ , now
written「別」) is towards the common characters「半」( _half_ ) and「分」( _divide_ ).

So, where did「丷」come from in each of「前」,「咲」,「呼」?

## 前

> In「前」,「丷」is part of「䒑」, which was an abbreviation of「止」. See [Why does 前
> mean "past" in terms of time, but "forward" in terms of
> direction?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/58462/why-
> does-%E5%89%8D-mean-past-in-terms-of-time-but-forward-in-terms-of-
> direction/58553#58553) for an explanation for the glyph origin of「前」.

## 咲

> In「咲」,「丷」is also part of「䒑」, but this time「䒑」is a cursive calligraphic
> variant form of「艸/艹」, the _grass/plant_ component.
>
> 「咲」was originally a variant of「笑/㗛」( _smile/laughter/happy_ ; the Japanese
> usage _bloom/blossom_ is a repurposed usage unrelated to the original).「笑」in
> turn was originally「」, that is, a combination of _grass/plants_ 「艹」and _dog_
> 「犬」.
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6V3Hf.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6V3Hf.png)
>
> For reference,「犬」around the same time period/state looked like:
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CtjOp.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CtjOp.png)
>
> The forms「咲」and「笑/㗛」came from the oft-muddled component exchange
> between「艹」and「竹/」(see [What is the character etymology of 着
> ?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/42827/what-is-the-character-
> etymology-of-%E7%9D%80) for a model case study) because「艹」and「」were so
> similar in shape. In some script styles, they were almost just upside-down
> versions of each other:
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kgbc9.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kgbc9.png)[![enter
> image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xzqzR.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xzqzR.png)

## 呼

> 「呼」( _to call out_ ) was originally「乎」, which was a picture of a tree branch
> being blown around in strong winds. The wind was represented by several
> strokes in an abstract manner.
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zaTxu.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zaTxu.png)
>
> The character invokes the meaning of _howling winds_ , extended to mean _to
> yell/call out_ , and「口」was added to emphasise this meaning while the
> original character「乎」became increasingly used as a Classical Chinese
> particle. A decorative stroke was added to the top later, resulting in
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/z1HfP.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/z1HfP.png)
>
> which leads on to the modern shape.

* * *

## References:

  * 杜忠誥《說文篆文訛形釋例》
  * 季旭昇《說文新證》
  * [小學堂](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw)
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answer