Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/r/g-na

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: *r-njəɣ  (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *r/g-na (Matisoff, STEDT; LaPolla, 1987; French, 1983); *g-na (Benedict, 1972)

Note that Proto-Sino-Tibetan has the same root *na for "ear" and "nose", distinguishing their meanings only with prefixes ("nose": *s-na). A parallelism exists in Chinese 聞 / 闻 (wén < OC *mun, "to smell; to hear").

For Chinese 耳, some modern Northern Min dialects attest the -Ø ~ -ŋ variation in the final (e.g. Jianyang /noiŋ/) as recorded in the historical rhyme book Jiyun. The Hokkien colloquial reading (if not a substrate borrowing) not only suggests an older nasal rhyme, it also appears to point to a proto-initial of *n̥ < *C.n̥.

*g-na

1. ear

*g-na

1. to hear, to listen

• Old Chinese: 耳 (*C.nəʔ (B-S), *njɯʔ (ZS), “ear”); 刵 (èr, “cutting off ear as a punishment”), 珥 (*njɯs (ZS), “ear ornament”)
  • Middle Chinese: 耳 (ȵɨX), 刵 (èr), 珥 (ȵɨH)
    • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 耳 ("ear") (ěr, /ˀɤɻ²¹³/), 刵 (èr), 珥 (ěr) (èr, /ˀɤɻ⁵¹/)
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 耳 /jiː¹³/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 耳 (ȵi²³ (colloquial), ɦəɻ²³ (literary))
  • Min
    • Hokkien
      • Taiwan: 耳 /çĩ³³, çi³³/ (colloquial), /ni⁵¹/ (literary)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: རྣ་བ (rna ba, “ear”)
• Kamarupan
  • North Assam
    • Proto-Tani: *ña-ruŋ
      • Nyishi: nyuru, nyurung
• Sal
  • Bodo-Koch
    • Bodo-Garo
      • Garo knaa
  • Jingpho-Asakian
    • Jingpho: na (“ear”)
• Tangut-Qiang
  • rGyalrongic
    • Situ: (tə)rna
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: နား (na:, “ear”)
      • Burmese: နာ (na, “to listen”)
    • Loloish
      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꅻ (hnep, “ear”), ꅳ (hnap, “ear (literary)”), ꅲ (hna, “to listen actively, to try to hear”)
• Proto-Karen: *naᴮ (Luangthongkum, 2013)
  • S'gaw Karen: နၢ် (na̱, “ear”)
  • Western Pwo: နါ (“ear”)

• *s-na (“nose”)
• *s-ta-s ~ ta-n (“to hear, to listen”)
• *njan (“to hear, to listen”)
• *hjen (“to look, to see; to hear, to listen”)