Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/g-sum

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *g-sum (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *g-sum (Matisoff, STEDT; Benedict, 1972; Chou, 1972; LaPolla, 1987)

This is perhaps the most stable numeral in Proto-Sino-Tibetan, with virtually no daughter language failing to show some reflex of this root. This stability can be attributed to various factors: the stability of the consonants "s" and "m", and the saliency of the numeral THREE itself. The velar prefix g/k- is the only prefix reconstructable for this root (another manifestation of well-preservedness); this is of course disregarding other prefixes in modern languages which resulted from an innovative prefix run in all of the lower numerals, for example Jingpho (m- in 3-5).

Some languages also show /a/ vocalism (e.g. Chinese), which some dismiss (somewhat unconvincingly) as secondary development. It is very likely that ablaut of *u ~ *a existed in the proto-language, i.e. *g-sum ⪤ *g-sam, analogous to *b-suŋ ~ b-saŋ (“fragrance”) (Matisoff, 1997).

*g-sum

1. three

• Old Chinese: 三 /*srum/ ("three"), /*s.rəm-s/ ("thrice")

  Note: The initial *sr- in Old Chinese irregularly developed into Middle Chinese *s- (not the expected *ʃ-), possibly due to influence by the next numeral 四 (*s.l- > s-) (⇒ *b-ləj), FOUR.

  • Middle Chinese: 三 (sɑm, sɑmH)

• • →   Japanese:  三 (さん, ​san)
          Korean:  삼 (三, sam)
          Vietnamese:  tam (三)

• • →   Proto-Tai:  *saːm (“three”) (whence Thai สาม (sǎam), Lao ສາມ (sām))

    • Mandarin
      • Beijing: 三 ("three") (sān, /san⁵⁵/)
      • Chengdu: 三 /san⁵⁵/
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 三 /säːm⁵⁵/
      • Taishan: 三 /ɬam³³/
    • Hakka
      • Sixian: 三 /sam²⁴/
      • Meixian: 三 /sam⁴⁴/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 三 /se̞⁵³/
  • Min
    • Min Bei

      Jian'ou: 三 /saŋ⁵⁴/

    • Min Dong

      Fuzhou: 三 /saŋ⁵⁵/

    • Min Nan

      Hokkien:

      Quanzhou: 三 /sã³³/ (colloquial), /sam³³/ (literary)

      Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Kaohsiung, Taipei: 三 /sã⁴⁴/ (colloquial), /sam⁴⁴/ (literary)

      Teochew: 三 /sã³³/ (colloquial), /sam³³/ (literary)

• Kamarupan
  • "North Assam"
    • Tani

      /*ɦum/ ("three") (Sun, 1993)

  • Kuki-Chin

    /*thum/ ("three") (VanBik, 2009)

    • Central Chin
      • Lushai [Mizo]: thum (“three”)
  • "Naga"
    • Northern Naga/Konyak

      *C̬-sum (“three”) (French, 1983)

    • Tangkhulic

      /*tʰum/ ("three") (Mortensen, 2012)

• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: གསུམ (gsum, “three”)
          • Modern Tibetan (Lhasa): /sum˥˥/
    • Lepcha: ᰠᰦᰮ (sám, “three”)
    • Tamangic/West Bodish

      *ᴮsom (“three”) (Mazaudon, 1994)

      • Tamang (Sahu): २सोम (²som, “three”)
  • Newar
    • Newar (Dolakhali): सों (sõ, “three”)
    • Newar (Kathmandu): सो (swɔ, “three”)
  • Mahakiranti
    • Kiranti
      • Eastern Kiranti = Rai
        • Limbu: ᤛᤢᤶᤛᤡ (sum si, “three”)
• Tangut-Qiang
  • Northern Tangut
    • Tangut: 𘕕 (sọ, /*so⁵⁵/, “three”)
  • rGyalrongic
    • Situ: kəsam
• Jingpho-Asakian
  • Jingpho
    • Jingpho [Kachin]: masum (“three”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: သုံး (sum:, “three”) /θóʊɴ/
    • Loloish: *C-sum² (“three”) (Bradley, 1979)
      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꌕ (suo, “three”)
      • Central Loloish
        • Lisu (Southern): ꓢꓺ (sa, “three”) (ꓢꓽ (sà) / ꓢꓼ (sà) before most mid tone classifiers)
• Karen: *səmᴬ (“three”) (Luangthongkum, 2013)
  • Sgaw: သၢ (sö, “three”)
• Baic
  • Bai: sanl (“three”)