Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/s-riŋ ~ s-r(j)aŋ

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan:

  *sring ("live, bear") (Coblin, 1986)

  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman:

    *s-riŋ ~ *s-raŋ ("live, alive, green, raw") (Benedict, 1972) - later modified to *śriŋ, explaining the ‑a‑ in Written Burmese hraŋ as being "conditioned by the initial cluster".

    *s-riŋ ~ *s-rɑŋ ("live, bear, be born, fresh (e.g. greens)"), *śriŋ ("live, alive, green, raw") (Chou, 1972)

    *s-ring(*A) ("live, bear") (Coblin, 1986)

    *s-riŋ, *s-raŋ ("live") (Weidert, 1987)

    *śriN ("live") (Michailovsky, 1991)

    *s-riŋ ⪤ *s-r(y)aŋ ("live, alive, green, raw, give birth") (Matisoff, STEDT)

A well-attested root, (in particular) with its parallel allofams reflected in Chinese in different forms, including the original vocalism variation *‑a‑ ⪤ *‑i‑ and/or forms lacking medial *r. Schuessler (2007) argued that this was originally a ST terminative final *-ŋ derivation from PST *sri (“to be, exist”), hence literally "come into existence → give birth → live". The original etymon perhaps survives in Chinese as 體 (Old Chinese /*r̥ˤijʔ/, "body, limbs").

The allofam *siŋ appears identical in form to PST *siŋ ~ sik (“tree”); the two are perhaps related (Schuessler, 2007). The Chinese reflex of the latter (薪) is homophonic with 新 ("new").

*s-riŋ ~ s-r(j)aŋ

1. to live
2. alive
3. green
4. raw
5. to give birth

• Old Chinese:

  生 (*sreŋ, sreŋ-s, “to live; to be born; to bear”), 生 (*ɴ-sreŋ, “fresh, raw (B-S); *sl̥eːŋ, sreŋs (ZS)”)

  (in the oracle bone script)

  牲 (*sreŋ (B-S; unlisted, theoretical); *sreŋ (ZS), “a (live) sacrificial animal”)

  青 (*ɴ-sˁ‹r›eŋ (B-S); *sl̥eːŋ (ZS), “blue-green”)

  →   Vietnamese:  xanh (“blue, green”)

  蒼 (*t͡sʰˁaŋ (B-S); *sʰaːŋ (ZS), “deep blue-green”) (< *k-saŋ? (Schuessler, 2007))

  性 (*seŋ-s (B-S); *sleŋs (ZS), “nature (of man)”)

  姓 (*seŋ-s (B-S); *sleŋs (ZS), “surname”)

  菁 (*ʔsleŋ (ZS), “luxuriant”)

  and perhaps 情 (*dzeŋ (B-S); *zleŋ (ZS), “emotion, nature”)

  • Middle Chinese: 生 (ʃɣæŋ, ʃɣæŋH/), 牲 (ʃɣæŋ/), 青 (t͡sʰeŋ/), 蒼 (t͡sʰɑŋ/), 性, 姓 (siᴇŋH/), 菁 (t͡siᴇŋ/), 情 (d͡ziᴇŋ/)

• • →   Japanese:  生 (せい, ​sei)
          Korean:  생 (生, saeng)
          Vietnamese:  sinh, sanh (生)

• • • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 生, 牲 (shēng, /ʂɤŋ⁵⁵/), 青 (qīng, /t͡ɕʰiŋ⁵⁵/), 蒼 (cāng, /t͡sʰɑŋ⁵⁵/), 性, 姓 (xìng, /ɕiŋ⁵¹/), 菁 (jīng, /t͡ɕiŋ⁵⁵/), 情 (qíng, /t͡ɕʰiŋ³⁵/)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: གསིང་མ (gsing ma, “pastureland, meadow with green grass”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: ရှင် (hrang, “to live; alive”)

• *seŋ ~ saŋ (“clear, clean, white, bright”)
• *səj (“to die”)