■ radical

dú

to study

How it’s built

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

讠

meaning

speech — 讠 is a component form of 言.

卖

sound

sell — The pronunciation of 读 was similar to 卖 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.

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