Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/kl(j)u(ŋ/k)

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: ?
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *klu(ː)ŋ ~ *k(l)uk ~ *klyoŋ (Matisoff, STEDT); *kluːŋ (Benedict, 1972; Chou, 1972)

This word is fairly common in the Mainland Southeast Asian Sprachbund (Matisoff, 1991). The PTB etymon is probably a loan from Proto-Mon-Khmer *ruŋ ~ *ruuŋ ~ *ruəŋ (“river, valley”). Compare for instance Vietnamese sông, Old Khmer *ghloṅ (“passage, way; waterway”) and Pacoh cruang. Other borrowings from PMK are Thai คลอง (klɔɔng, “channel”) in Tai-Kadai and Eastern Cham krăwng (“river”), Acehnese kruëng (“river”) in Austronesian.

In Chinese there are two kind of reflexes: one with a nasal coda, found in 江 (OC *kroːŋ, “river”) and its derivate 港 (OC *kroːŋʔ, *ɡloːŋs, “harbour”), and one with the correspondent velar stop, reconstructed for 谷 (OC *ɦkroːɡ, *kloːɡ, *ɡ·loːɡ, “valley”).

This root appear to be somehow related to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *grawk (“valley”).

*k)

1. river
2. valley

• Old Chinese: 江 (jiāng) /*kˤroŋ/ (B-S), /*kroːŋ/ (ZS) ("river"); 港 /*kroːŋʔ, ɡloːŋs/ (ZS) ("harbour"); 谷 /*C.qˤok/ (B-S), /*ɦkroːɡ, kloːɡ, ɡloːɡ/ (ZS).
  • Middle Chinese: 江 (jiāng) /kˠʌŋ/; 港 /kˠʌŋˣ/; 谷 /kuk̚/

    → Japanese: 江 (こう, ​kō)
    Korean: 강 (江, gang)
    Vietnamese: giang (江)

    → Japanese: 港 (こう, ​kō)
    Korean: 항 (港, hang)
    Vietnamese: cảng (港)

    → Japanese: 谷 (こく, ​koku)
    Korean: 곡 (谷, gok)
    Vietnamese: cốc (谷)

    • Modern Chinese
      • Beijing: 江 (jiāng, /t͡ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵⁵/, “river”); 港 (gǎng, /kɑŋ²¹⁴/, “harbour”); 谷 (gǔ, /ku²¹⁴/, “valley”)
      • Cantonese: /kɔːŋ⁵⁵/; /kɔːŋ³⁵/; /kʊk̚⁵/
      • Wu: /kɑ̃⁵³/; /kɑ̃³⁴/; /kʊʔ⁵⁵/
  • Min Nan: /kaŋ⁴⁴/; /kaŋ⁴¹/; /kɔk̚³²/
• Tangkhulic: /*koŋ/ (Mortensen, 2012)
  • Tangkhul: kong (“river”)
• Sal
  • Jingpho: kung (/kuŋ/, “river”)
• Tibeto-Kanauri
  • Bodic
    • Tibetan: ཀླུང (klung, “river”), ཀླུང་མ (klung ma, “river”); ལྗོངས (ljongs, “valley, stream”), ལུང་པ (lung pa, “valley”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Loloish
      • Nusu: /khɹoŋ⁵⁵/
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: ချိုင့်ဝှမ်း (hkyuing.hwam:, “valley”); ချောင်း (hkyaung:, “stream, brook”); ချောက် (hkyauk, “chasm, gulf, ravine”)
      • Tavoyan: ခ္လောင်း (“stream, brook, creek”)

• *grawk (“valley”)