< Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan < r

Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/r/g-na

This Proto-Sino-Tibetan entry contains reconstructed terms 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: *r-njəɣ (Coblin, 1986)
- Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *r/g-na (Matisoff, STEDT; LaPolla, 1987; French, 1983); *g-na (Benedict, 1972)

Note that Proto-Sino-Tibetan has the same root *na for "ear" and "nose", distinguishing their meanings only with prefixes ("nose": *s-na). A parallelism exists in Chinese 聞／闻 (wén < OC *mun, "to smell; to hear").

For Chinese 耳, some modern Northern Min dialects attest the -Ø ~ -ŋ variation in the final (e.g. Jianyang /noiŋ/) as recorded in the historical rhyme book Jiyun. The Hokkien colloquial reading (if not a substrate borrowing) not only suggests an older nasal rhyme, it also appears to point to a proto-initial of *n̥ < *C.n̥.

Noun

*g-na

ear

Verb

*g-na

to hear, to listen

Descendants

Old Chinese: 耳 (*C.nəʔ (B-S), *njɯʔ (ZS), “ear”); 刵 (èr, “cutting off ear as a punishment”), 珥 (*njɯs (ZS), “ear ornament”)
- Middle Chinese: 耳 (ȵɨX), 刵 (èr), 珥 (ȵɨH)
  - Modern Mandarin
    - Beijing: 耳 ("ear") (ěr, /ˀɤɻ²¹³/), 刵 (èr), 珥 (ěr) (èr, /ˀɤɻ⁵¹/)
  - Cantonese
    - Guangzhou: 耳 /jiː¹³/
  - Wu
    - Shanghai: 耳 (ȵi²³ (colloquial), ɦəɻ²³ (literary))
- Min
  - Hokkien
    - Taiwan: 耳 /çĩ³³, çi³³/ (colloquial), /ni⁵¹/ (literary)
Himalayish
- Tibeto-Kanauri
  - Bodic
    - Tibetan
      - Written Tibetan: རྣ་བ (rna ba, “ear”)
Kamarupan
- North Assam
  - Proto-Tani: *ña-ruŋ
    - Nyishi: nyuru, nyurung
Sal
- Bodo-Koch
  - Bodo-Garo
    - Garo knaa
- Jingpho-Asakian
  - Jingpho: na (“ear”)
Tangut-Qiang
- rGyalrongic
  - Situ: (tə)rna
Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
- Lolo-Burmese
  - Burmish
    - Burmese: နား (na:, “ear”)
  - Loloish
    - Northern Loloish
      - Yi (Liangshan): ꅻ (hnep, “ear”), ꅳ (hnap, “ear (literary)”), ꅲ (hna, “to listen actively, to try to hear”)
Proto-Karen: *naᴮ (Luangthongkum, 2013)
- S'gaw Karen: နၢ် (na̱, “ear”)
- Western Pwo: နါ (“ear”)

See also

*s-na (“nose”)
*s-ta-s ~ ta-n (“to hear, to listen”)
*njan (“to hear, to listen”)
*hjen (“to look, to see; to hear, to listen”)

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