Reconstruction:Proto-Naish/me

This Proto-Naish 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-Naish

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *məj; compare Burmese မီး (mi:), Japhug smi, among others.

Noun

*me

  1. fire
Reconstruction notes
  • Jacques and Michaud reconstruct *mi, while Li reconstructs *me. This difference also applies to the word meaning "girl, daughter".
Descendants
  • Naxi: mi (/⁠mi³³⁠/)
  • Narua: mu (/⁠mv̩˧⁠/)
  • Laze: [Term?] (/⁠mv̩˧⁠/)

Etymology 2

Compare Japhug tɯ-me (“daughter”) and the second syllable of Burmese သမီး (sa.mi:, “daughter”).

Noun

*me

  1. daughter
  2. girl
Reconstruction notes

The word for "daughter" differs from "fire" by tone; it is unknown there is some inherited element not accounted for by Li's reconstruction that accounts for the tonal difference (note that "fire" and "daughter" do not have identical rhymes in Japhug and Tangut, unlike their Burmese counterparts), or the tone difference arose for the purpose of disambiguating the two words.

Descendants
  • Naxi: mil (/⁠mi⁵⁵⁠/)
  • Narua: muq (/⁠mv̩˩˥⁠/)

Etymology 3

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-meŋ (“name”).

Noun

*me

  1. name
Descendants

Further reading

  • Jacques, Guillaume, Michaud, Alexis (2011) “Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages: Naxi, Na and Laze”, in Diachronica‎[1], volume 28, number 4, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 468–498
  • Li, Zihe (2022) A Naish Historical Phonology: The Rhyme System‎[2], page 9
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