Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/mnam

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: *m-nəm (Schuessler, 2007)
    • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *m/s-nam (STEDT)

Traditionally reconstructed with a root *nam that is prefixed with *m- intransitively and *s- transitively. However, Jacques rejects this paradigm given that:[1]

  • Jinghpaw does not actually use *s- to form its transitive "smell" verb; it instead uses a tone change from the *m- form. For Jacques, this indicates that the *m- is not prefixal, but rather root-initial.
  • The verb appears in rGyalrongic with a root-initial cluster mn- onto which transitive prefixes were attached, including the *sɤ- causative prefix.

Jacques thus concludes that the root underlyingly began with an *mn-, with the initial *m suppressed when prefixed in Tibetan. Bialek, who believes in the traditional *nam root reconstruction, has sought to excuse the m-initial forms in rGyalrongic as Tibetic borrowings.[2]

Verb

*mnam

  1. to smell, or more specifically:
  2. to give off a scent

Descendants

  • Proto-Bodish: *(m)nam
    • Tibetic
      • Tibetan: མནམ (mnam), ⇒ སྣོམ (snom)
    • Dakpa-Dzala
      • Dakpa: [Term?] (/⁠nem35⁠/), [Term?] (/⁠num35⁠/)
  • rGyalrongic:
    • rGyalrong:
      • Japhug: mnɤm (“to emit a smell”), ⇒ nɤmnɤm (“to smell (something)”), ɕɤmnɤm (“to cause to have a smell”)
  • Naic
    • Proto-Naish: *nu
      • Naxi: nvq (/⁠nv̩²¹⁠/)
      • Narua: neu (/⁠ɳv̩˧⁠/), bbunu (/⁠bv̩˧nv̩˧⁠/)
  • Lolo-Burmese:
    • Burmish:
  • Jinghpaw-Asakian:
  • Proto-Central Naga: *m-hnaːm
  • Proto-Tangkhulic: *nam
    • Tangkhul Naga: khanganam
  • Kho-Bwa
    • Proto-Puroik: *nam
    • Proto-Western Kho-Bwa: *n̥am
  • Lepcha: ᰍᰩᰮ (nóm), ⇒ ᰉᰩᰮ (nyóm)

References

  1. ^ Jacques, Guillaume (2014), “On Coblin's Law”, in Richard VanNess Simmons, editor, Studies in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Dialect, Phonology, Transcription and Text, Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, page 161-163 of 155-165
  2. ^ Bialek, Joanna (2026), Old Literary Tibetan: A Comprehensive Text Grammar Based on the Old Tibetan Annals (Languages of Asia), volume 30, Leiden; Boston: Brill, page 395
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