Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/na-ŋ

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *njaɣ (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *na-ŋ (Matisoff, STEDT); *naŋ ⪤ **na (LaPolla, 1987)

Compare Old Japanese な (汝 (na, “you”)), Middle Korean 너 (ne, “you”).

*na-ŋ

1. you (second-person singular pronoun)

• Old Chinese:

  女, 汝 /*naʔ/ (B-S); /*njaʔ/ (ZS) ("you (sg.)")

  乃 /*nˤəʔ/ (B-S); /*nɯːʔ/ (ZS) ("your (sg.)")

  爾 /*neʔ/ (B-S); /*njelʔ/ (ZS) ("you (sg. & pl.)")

  而 /*nə/ (B-S); /*njɯ/ (ZS) ("you, your")

  你 /*nɯʔ/ (ZS) ("you") (colloquial variant)

  戎 /*nuŋ/ (B-S); /*njuŋ/ (ZS) ("you")

  若 (*nak (B-S); *njag (ZS), “you”)

  • Middle Chinese: 女, 汝 (ȵɨʌX), 乃 (nʌiX), 爾 (ȵiᴇX), 而 (ȵɨ), 你 (?), 戎 (ȵɨuŋ), 若 (ȵɨɐk)

    (All of these survive as readings in compounds or in literary texts in modern dialects. Listed below are the colloquial words for "you" which are ultimately from this PST etymon.)

    • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 你 (nǐ, /ni²¹⁴/) ("you, thou")
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 你 /nei¹³/ ("you, thou")
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 儂 /nʊ̆ŋ²³/ ("you, thou")
  • Min
    • Min Nan
      • Taiwan: 你, 汝 /li⁵¹/ ("you")
• Kamarupan
  • Kuki-Chin

    /*naŋ/ (VanBik, 2009)

    • Central Chin
      • Lushai [Mizo]: nang (“you (sg.)”), nangni (“you (pl.)”)
• Tangut-Qiang
  • rGyalrongic
    • Japhug: nɤ-
    • Situ: no
    • Tshobdun: nɐ-ɟiʔ
    • Zbu: nə-jeʔ
• Jingpho-Asakian
  • Jingpho
    • Jingpho [Kachin]: nang (“you”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese

    /*naŋ¹/ ("2nd person pronoun")

    • Burmish
      • Burmese: နင် (nang, “you (intimate, impolite)”), နင့် (nang., “your; you (intimate, impolite)”), ညည်း (nyany:, “you (used among women)”)
    • Loloish

      /*naŋ¹/ (Bradley, 1979)

      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꆏ (ne, “you (sg.)”), ꆍ (no, “you (pl.)”)
      • Central Loloish
        • Lisu (Southern): ꓠꓴꓻ (nu, “you”)
• Karenic:
  • Sgaw: နၢၣ် (nö̀, “you”)

• *ŋa (“I (first-person singular pronoun)”)