< Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan < g

Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/g/s-ni-s

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: ?
    • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *g/s-ni-s (Matisoff, STEDT); *g-nis (Benedict, 1972; Chou, 1972; LaPolla, 1987); *g-ni-s (Weidert, 1987)

Alongside the root for "three" (*g-sum), this root for "two" is one of the most lexemically and phonologically stable numerals in Sino-Tibetan languages, and lexical replacement of this etymon is excessively rare: e.g. Jingpho /ləkhôŋ/ which has not been successfully connected to anything else. The Jingpho word for "one" has a similar shape, /ləŋâi/, and is also etymologically unclear.

This root appears unmistakably cognate with *s-ni-s (“seven”). See there for more.

The Burmese form seems to suggest a proto-language velar final variant: *-ik.

Numeral

*g/s-ni-s

Proto-Sino-Tibetan numerals
ONE*ʔit
*kat
*tjak ~ g-t(j)ik
TWO*g/s-ni-s
THREE*g-sum
FOUR*b-ləj
FIVE*l/b-ŋa
SIX*d-(k-)ruk
SEVEN*s-ni-s
EIGHT*b-r-gjat ~ b-g-rjat
NINE*d/s-kəw
TEN*gip
*ts(j)i(j) ~ tsjaj
TWENTY*(m-)kul
HUNDRED*b-r-gja
THOUSAND*s-toŋ
  1. two

Descendants
  • Old Chinese: 二 /*nij-s/
    • Middle Chinese: 二 (ȵiɪH)

    • →   Japanese:  二 (に, ​ni)
            Korean:  이 (二, i)
            Vietnamese:  nhị (二)

      • Modern Mandarin
        • Beijing: 二 (èr, /ˀɤɻ⁵¹/)
      • Cantonese
        • Guangzhou: 二 /jiː²²/
      • Wu
        • Shanghai: 二 (ȵi²³) (colloquial) /ɦəɻ²³/ (literary)
  • Himalayish
    • Tibeto-Kanauri
      • Bodic
        • Tibetan
          • Written Tibetan: གཉིས (gnyis, “two”)
          • Sikkimese: ཉི (nyi)
  • Tangut-Qiang
    • Northern Tangut
      • Tangut: 𗍫 (njɨ, /*nʲʏ⁵⁵/, “two”)
    • rGyalrongic
      • Situ: kəɲes
  • Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
    • Lolo-Burmese
      • Burmish
      • Loloish
        • Northern Loloish
          • Yi (Liangshan): ꑍ (nyip, “two”)
  • Karen: *k-hnejᴬ (Luangthongkum, 2013)

See also
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.