< Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan

Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/b-sej

This Proto-Sino-Tibetan entry contains reconstructed words and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Sino-Tibetan

Etymology
  • Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *bsɨd (Coblin, 1986)
    • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *b-sey (Matisoff, STEDT)

Chinese 犀 (OC *sliːl, “rhinoceros”) possibly descends from this root, although the presence of the lateral segment, *-lˁ- (B-S) or *-l- (ZS), after the initial *s- remains unexplained.

Schuessler (2007) considers it an areal word, also attested in Mon-Khmer languages, e.g. Khmer សេះ (seh) and Mon ချေံ (chɛh), from Proto-Mon-Khmer *ʔseh (“horse”). See also Proto-Mon-Khmer *mraŋ (“horse”), compared with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-m-raŋ ~ s-raŋ (“horse”), for a similar case.

Noun

*b-sej

  1. rhinoceros

Descendants
  • Old Chinese: 犀 /*s.lˤəj/ (B-S), /*sliːl/ (ZS) ("rhinoceros")
    • Middle Chinese: 犀 sej (/sei/) ("rhinoceros")

    • →   Japanese:  犀 (さい, ​sai)
            Korean:  서 (犀, seo)
            Vietnamese:  tê (犀)

      • Modern Mandarin
        • Beijing: 犀 (xī) /ɕi⁵⁵/
      • Yue
        • Cantonese: 犀 /sɐi̯⁵⁵/
    • Min Nan
      • Xiamen: 犀 /sai⁴⁴/ (vernacular), /se⁴⁴/ (literary)
  • Himalayish
    • Tibeto-Kanauri
      • Bodish
        • Tibetan
          • Written Tibetan: བསེ (bse, “rhinoceros”), བསེ་རུ (bse ru, “rhinoceros, unicorn”)
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