拉 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

lālálàlǎ HSK2

pull

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 立 represents the sound.

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

立 Sound component

lì stand

Change in sound

拉 and 立 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
拉 lop
立 lip

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	lop	[r]ˤəp	break

《說文》：“拉，摧也。从手，立聲。”