Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/mrəŋ
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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
[edit]Reconstruction
[edit]- Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *(s-)mrəŋ (Hill, 2019)
- Proto-Tibeto-Burman: (s-)brəŋ (Chou, 1972), *s-b-(r/j)aŋ (STEDT)
Noun
[edit]*mrəŋ
Reconstruction notes
[edit]The initial *mr- is guaranteed by Chinese, Naish, and with Simon's law (*mr- > br-), Tibetan.
There are at least three velar-nasal-final words related to flying insects attested across Sino-Tibetan:
- *mrəŋ "bee, fly", corresponding to Chinese 蠅 / 蝇 (yíng) and cognate to Tibetan སྦྲང (sbrang) and Japhug ɣʑo (Hill, 2019; Zhang, Jacques and Lai, 2019);
- *jaŋ (*jəŋ also works), appearing in Burmese ယင် (yang) and other yod-initial cognates. Schuessler (2007) attempts to relate Chinese 蠅 / 蝇 (yíng) to this, but fails on Chinese-internal and Sino-Xenic grounds;
- Chinese 虻 (OC mˁraŋ, “horsefly”).
Attempting to relate these three etyma is phonologically impossible, despite the three etyma being conflated together on STEDT.
The East Bodish forms are also phonologically problematic; they all reflect Simon's law (*mr- > br), which is not supposed to happen in East Bodish. Despite this discrepancy, Bodt derives all Bodish forms from straightforward inheritance from Proto-Bodish *(s)braŋ.