Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/p-wap

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: *p-wap (Matisoff, STEDT), *r/s/p-wap (Matisoff, 2003)

The aspirated initial of Old Chinese 肺 (OC *pʰobs, “lung”) is probably due to sound symbolism and it indicates breathing (Schuessler, 2007). Compare Proto-Vietic *pʰoːc (“lung”), possibly from an earlier *p-hoːc < *p-soːs / *p-hoːs, with an original fricative coda, as Vietnamese phổi and Chut soh seem to suggest (Ferlus, 2007). Similar examples of sound symbolism for words having to do with “breathing” and “wind” are also recognizable in Indo-European languages, cf. Sanskrit फुप्फुस (phupphusa, “lungs”), connected with Sanskrit फुत्कार (phutkāra, “to blow, hiss”), from the root Sanskrit फुत् (phut, “to blow”); and Ancient Greek φυσάω (phusáō, “to blow, puff”), from Ancient Greek φῦσα (phûsa, “bellows”).

Tibetan གློ་བ (glo ba, “lungs”) may be derived from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-lwa-p, an allofamic variant of this root (Matisoff, 2003), but it might also be a loan from Sanskrit क्लोमन् (kloman, “(right) lung”).

See also Proto-Tai *pwɤtᴰ (“lung”), whence Thai ปอด (bpɔ̀ɔt) and Zhuang bwt, where the presence of the medial *-w- is explained by the fact that this word was borrowed in PT when it was already pronounced as *pʰuɑs (Pittayaporn, 2009).

*p-wap

1. lung

• Old Chinese: 肺 /*pʰot-s/ (B-S), /*pʰobs/ (ZS) ("lung")
  • Middle Chinese: 肺 phjojH (/pʰʉɐi^H/) ("lung")
    • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 肺 (fèi, /feɪ̯⁵¹/, “lung”)
    • Yue
      • Cantonese: 肺 (/fɐi̯³³/, “lung”)
  • Min Nan
    • Xiamen: 肺 (/hui²¹/, “lung”)

• *tsjwap
• *s-map
• *s-wap
• *g-lwa-p
• *ts(i/u)-t