Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/b-ras

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *b-ras (Matisoff, STEDT)

A connection between this root and Proto-Austronesian *bəʀas (“husked rice”) has been proposed (Sagart, 2002; Matisoff, STEDT), compare for instance Amis felac, Malay beras, Tagalog bigas, Malagasy vary, Chamorro pugas and Kelabit bera. Moreover, Burushaski bras (“rice”) may be a borrowed from a Sino-Tibetan language. Ferlus (2010) proposes an Austroasiatic origin & reconstructs putative root *C.rac, a nominal derivation from the verb *rac "to pull, to tear off, to reap". Still, Sagart (2011) deems Ferlus' supporting evidence for the reconstruction to be "flimsy".

The most probable Chinese comparanda are 糲 (OC *m·raːds, *m·rads, *m·raːd, “grain of rice”) and 稗 (OC *breːs, “polished rice”). The second one is sometimes compared with Khmer បាយ (baay, “cooked rice; to eat”). Benedict (1975) also relates Tibetan འབྲས་བུ ('bras bu, “fruit”) with 飯 (OC *bonʔ, *bons, “millet, cooked rice”) on the basis of the double meaning of this root (“rice, fruit”), however it's possible that the latter shares a common source with Proto-Mon-Khmer *puuŋ (“cooked rice”). Chinese 米 (OC *miːʔ, “uncooked rice”) likely comes from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma-j ~ mej (“rice, paddy”).

According to Schuessler (2007), Mizo ṭai (“species of rice”) may be a cognate along with Mizo rah (“fruit”), although Sagart (2002) associates it with Tibetan ཁྲེ (khre, “millet”), which possibly comes from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *khrəj (“millet, rice”).

*b-ras

1. rice
2. fruit
3. round object

• Old Chinese: 糲 (“grain”) /*rˤat-s/, /*rˤat/, /*rat-s/ (B-S), /*mraːds/, /*mrads/, /*mraːd/ (ZS); 稗 (“polished rice”) /*C.bˁre-s/ (B-S), /*breːs/ (ZS)
  • Middle Chinese: 糲 /liᴇi^H/, /lɑi^H/, /lɑt̚/; 稗 /bˠɛ^H/

• • →   Japanese:  糲 (れい, らつ, ​rei, ratsu)
          Korean:  려, 여 (糲, ryeo, yeo)
          Vietnamese:  lệ (糲)

• • →   Japanese:  稗 (べ, ​be)
          Korean:  패 (稗, pae)
          Vietnamese:  - (稗)

• • • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 粝 (lì, /li⁵¹/); 稗 (bài, /paɪ̯⁵¹/)
    • Yue
      • Cantonese: 粝 (/lɐi̯²²/); 稗 (/pɑːi̯²², pʰei̯²¹, pɐi̯²²/)
  • Min Nan
    • Xiamen: 粝 (/pʰue²²/)
• Kuki-Chin:

  /*raʔ/ (VanBik, 2009)

  • Central Chin
    • Mizo: rah (“fruit, berry”)
• Sal
  • Bodo-Garo
    • Bodo: bere (“bear fruit”)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: འབྲས ('bras, “rice, fruit”), འབྲས་བུ ('bras bu, “fruit”), མིག་འབྲས (mig 'bras, “eyeball”), འབྲས་བུ་སྐྱེ ('bras bu skye, “bear fruit”)

• *dz(j)a-k/n/t/s (“rice, food, eat”)
• *khrəj (“rice, millet”)
• *bu (“rice”)
• *ma-j ~ mej (“rice, paddy”)