Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/bə(q)

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *bə (Schuessler, 2007)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *ba-k (STEDT); *ba (Matisoff, 2003; Benedict, 1972; Chou, 1972)

The *(q) here is a placeholder for an "allofam" dorsal consonant that can stand for any k, glottal stop, or nothing at all.

Schuessler (2007) believes that everything under this etymon is an Austroasiatic loanword, compare:

• Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɓɔʔ (“to carry on back”) (Khmer ព (pɔɔ, “to carry (on back, on hip, in arms)”)
• Proto-Mon-Khmer *(d)ɓa(ː)k (“to bestride, to be bestridden, have hanging down e.g. round neck”) (Khmer ពាក់ (peak, “to hang, to wear”), Mon လဇက် (həbɛk, “to hang over horizontal support, to wear round neck”), Vietnamese mắc (“to hang, to hook”)).

*bə(q)

1. to carry on back
2. shoulder

• Old Chinese:

  負 / 负 (*bəʔ (B-S), *bɯʔ (ZS), “to carry on the back; to bear; to lose, to fail”)

  背 (*pˁək-s (B-S), *pɯːgs (ZS), “back (of body)”)

  背 (*m-pˁək-s (B-S), *bɯːgs (ZS), “to turn the back on, to carry on the back”)

  北 (*pˁək (B-S), *pɯːg (ZS), “north, i.e. what the back is turned to when facing south”)

  • Middle Chinese: 負 / 负 (bɨuX), 背 (puʌiH, buʌiH), 北 (pək)

    → Japanese: 北 (ほく, ​hoku)
    Korean: 북 (北, buk)
    Vietnamese: bắc (北)

    • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 負 / 负 (fù) /fu⁵¹/); 背 (bèi, “back”) /peɪ̯⁵¹/, 背 (bēi, “to carry on the back”) /peɪ̯⁵⁵/; 北 (běi) /peɪ̯²¹⁴/)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Tibetan: འབའ་བ ('ba' ba, “to bring, to carry”)
• Tani
  • Apatani: ba (“carry on the back or shoulder”)
• Lolo-Burmese
  • Burmish
    • Burmese: (perhaps) ပခုံး (pa.hkum:, “shoulder”)