Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/rus

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: ?
- Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *s/m/g/-rus (Matisoff, STEDT); *rus (Weidert, 1987 TBTo; Michailovsky, 1991 Kr; LaPolla, 1987; Benedict, 1972 STC)

A Chinese reflex has been difficult to find. Chinese 骨 (gŭ < OC *kˁut, "bone") is sometimes compared with this root. Although Lepcha a-hrǎt ("bone") and Karen k(h)rut ("bone") show a final -t, the correspondence is still problematic as there is no medial *-r- in the Chinese word. Interestingly, there is a Chinese cognate to Written Tibetan rus ("clan"): 類 / 类 (lèi) (lèi < OC *rut-s, "category, clan"); note that the sense "clan" is likely a secondary derivation from "bone" > "lineage, family". Compare also Chinese 骸 (hái) (hái < OC *ɡˁrə, "bones, skeleton") and 頄 / 𬱓 (kuí < OC *ɡʷru, "cheekbone"). A more recent theory by Sagart (2014) and Hill (2019) compares Chinese 律 (lǜ) (lǜ < OC *[r]ut, "pitch pipe"), apparently as early pitch pipes would be made of bone.

Noun

*rus

bone

Descendants

Proto-Bodish: *rus pa
- Tibetic
  - Tibetan: རུས་པ (rus pa)
- Dakpa-Dzala
  - Dakpa: རོས་པ (rospa)
- East Bodish
  - Bumthangkha: རོད་པ (rotpa)
  - Khengkha: རོད་པ (rotpa)
  - Kurtöp: རོས་པ (rospa), རོད་པ (rotpa)
Proto-Lolo-Burmese: *rəw²
- Burmish
  - Burmese: ရိုး (rui:, “bone; lineage, family”), အရိုး (a.rui:, “bone; stalk; hilt, haft; lineage, tradition”)
- Proto-Loloish: *ro²
Proto-Karen: *khrwitᴰ
Proto-Kuki-Chin: *ruʔ
- Northeastern
  - Tedim Chin: guh
  - Zou: gu
- Central
  - Falam Chin: ruh
  - Lai: ruh
  - Mizo: ruh
- Southern
  - Nga La: rhuh
- Khomic
  - Khumi Chin: ähu
Jingpho-Asakian
- Jingpho: nrut
Proto-Central Naga: *a-rut
- Ao: teret
Proto-Tangkhulic: *ru
- ⇒ Tangkhul Naga: ārakui