讀 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

dúdòu HSK1

read

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 𧸇 represents the sound.

Components

言 Meaning component

yán speech

𧸇 Sound component

yù to sell

The original sound component 𧸇 was later corrupted to the visually and semantically similar character 賣.

Change in sound

讀 and 𧸇 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	duwk	C.lˤok	read (v.)

《說文》：“讀，誦書也。从言，賣聲。”

Phonosemantic compound. 讠 represents the meaning and 𧸇 represents the sound. Simplified form of 讀.

讠 Meaning component

yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

mài, mai sell

Simplified from the 𧸇 component in the traditional character 讀.