Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/b-sej

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: *bsɨd (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *b-sey (Matisoff, STEDT)

Chinese 犀 (OC *sliːl, “rhinoceros”) possibly descends from this root, although the presence of the lateral segment, *-lˁ- (B-S) or *-l- (ZS), after the initial *s- remains unexplained.

Schuessler (2007) considers it an areal word, also attested in Mon-Khmer languages, e.g. Khmer សេះ (seh) and Mon ချေံ (chɛh), from Proto-Mon-Khmer *ʔseh (“horse”). See also Proto-Mon-Khmer *mraŋ (“horse”), compared with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-m-raŋ ~ s-raŋ (“horse”), for a similar case.

Noun

*b-sej

1. rhinoceros

Descendants

• Old Chinese: 犀 /*s.lˤəj/ (B-S), /*sliːl/ (ZS) (“rhinoceros”)
  • Middle Chinese: 犀 (sej) (/sei/) (“rhinoceros”)

**:

→ Japanese: 犀 (さい, ​sai)
Korean: 서 (犀, seo)
Vietnamese: tê (犀)

• • • Mandarin:
      • Beijing: 犀 (xī) /ɕi⁵⁵/
    • Cantonese:
      • Guangzhou-Hong Kong: 犀 /sɐi̯⁵⁵/
  • Min:
    • Coastal Min:
      • Min Nan:
        • Hokkien:
          • Xiamen: 犀 /sai⁴⁴/ (vernacular), /se⁴⁴/ (literary)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodish
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: བསེ (bse, “rhinoceros”), བསེ་རུ (bse ru, “rhinoceros, unicorn”)