Possible Duplicate:
What etymology dictionaries are available?
What was this online dictionary's name with ancient traditional and simplified characters and etymology?
I always wanted to see where some Chinese characters originated from. Are there any websites that will show me how a Chinese character came into being?
For example, I'm interested on how 讀 has 賣 on its right yet sounds nothing like each other, nor have any similar meaning.
Yes, almost certainly a duplicate question.
But you raise an interesting question: why does 讀 have 賣 (mai4) on its right hand side?
In actual fact, the right hand side is a character pronounced yu4 (which looks similar to 竇 but which I cannot find in my IME) which was simplified to 賣 in the clerical script. Why does yu4 not sound much like du2? Well, according to Baxter's reconstruction of Old Chinese, they did: 讀 (*lôk), 賣 (*luk).
I can provite a website http://www.chineseetymology.org
It was set up by Richard Horace Sears.
Maybe it can help you.
