读
dú · HSK 1
read
📖 读 = 言 (speech) + 卖 (sell) — speech sold aloud, i.e. reading out
The 言 radical marks speech/words; 卖 (mài, to sell) gives the sound hint and the sense of putting words out. Originally meant reading aloud, later broadened to study and attend school.
读 — speech radical 讠 + 卖 (mài, sell)
读 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (speech) gives the meaning, since reading is tied to speaking words aloud. The right side 卖 originally provided the sound; in the traditional form 讀 the phonetic was 賣 (yù/dú).