Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/r-nəʔ

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

Reconstruction

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

*r-nəʔ

ear

Verb

*r-nəʔ

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
      - Tibetan: རྣ་བ (rna ba, “ear”)
Kamarupan
- North Assam
  - Proto-Tani: *ña-ruŋ
    - Nyishi: nyuru, nyurung
Boro-Garo
- Garo knaa
Jingpho-Asakian
- Jingpho: na (“ear”)
rGyalrongic
- East rGyalrongic
  - Situ: (tə)rna
Naic
- Proto-Naish: *Cla
  - ⇒ Naxi: heizeeq (/⁠he³³tsɯ²¹⁠/)
  - ⇒ Narua: lhibi (/⁠ɬi˧pi˩⁠/)
  - ⇒ Laze: [Term?] (/⁠ɬie˧tu˥⁠/)
Lolo-Burmese
- Burmish
  - Achang: no
  - Burmese: နား (na:, “ear”), နာ (na, “to listen”)
- 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”)