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Root ק־ר־א: calling, reading, naming

Roots Atlas 65 · שֹׁרֶשׁ ק ר א · the calling / reading root
ק ר א
k · r · '
everything to do with calling out, reading aloud, and naming
6 words · 1 root · 3 verb-voices

One root, one gesture: lifting the voice toward something. Calling someone, reading a text out loud, and giving a name are the same act in Hebrew, because to read was first to recite, to say the words aloud. From this single thread come the verb "to read / to call", the noun for a call or exclamation, and even מִקְרָא, the Bible itself, literally "the thing that is read/recited". Every word here is verified against pealim, niqqud included.

The verb across the binyanim (voices)

The same root runs through the verb system. Each binyan is a voice: it bends the one idea into active, passive, causative or reciprocal. Tap to hear.

Pa'al
לִקְרֹאlikro
simple active, the plain action
to read; to call (out)
Nif'al
לְהִקָּרֵאlehikare
passive / middle, it happens to the subject
to be called, to be named; to be read
Hif'il
לְהַקְרִיאlehakri
causative, make someone do it
to read aloud (to someone), to dictate a reading

Three binyanim are live here: the plain act (pa'al), its passive "to be named" (nif'al), and the causative "to make someone hear a reading" (hif'il). The pi'el and hitpa'el slots are simply not lexicalized for this root, which is normal.

Words born from the root

Same root letters, different noun moulds (mishkalim). The mould tells you the function: who does it, the act of doing it, or the thing produced.

① The act: the voice raised

קְרִיאָה
kri'a
a call, a cry, an exclamation; a reading
קְטִילָה

② The thing read: the text

מִקְרָא
mikra
the Bible (Scripture); a legend / key (of a map)
מִקְטָל

③ The quality: fit to be read

קָרִיא
kari
legible, readable
קָטִיל

Decode it yourself

Strip the prefixes, suffixes and vowels. Three consonants remain, and the meaning lives there.