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STEDT #5595

*nya-ŋ/k

WOMAN
Proto-Tibeto-Burman

Notes

There is evidently an allofam with final velar, reflected by WT nyag-mo ‘woman’ and Chinese 孃 / 娘 ‘lady, woman, mother’, OC ni̯ang (not in GSR #730); AD 541 reconstructs ni̯ang for MC.

HPTB:173 errs in relating Chinese 女 both to the present root and to #1623 PTB *k/m-na MOTHER / FEMALE. In addition, a wrong GSR citation is given under *nya.

In any case, there seems to be considerable overlap among this root, #1623 PTB *k/m-na MOTHER / FEMALE, and #1621 PTB *n(y)u FEMALE / MOTHER, and further work will be needed to clarify their interrelationship.

Chinese comparandum

女 OC *ni̯o, GSR #94a-e ‘woman, lady, girl’; Coblin 86:161 ST *nr̵yak > OC *nrjakx; B & S 2011 *nraʔ; Mand. nǚ.

Reflexes & cognates12 reflexes · 6 subgroups

0.1Tibeto-Burman (previously published reconstructions)1

2.1.2.1Tibetan2

Tibetan (Written)nya-masuffix n‘mistress of the house, housewife’Jäschke 1881: 184
Tibetan (Written)nyag-momorpheme ‘woman’Matisoff 03 HPTB: 174

9Sinitic3

Chinese (Hanzi)姑morpheme◦娘 ‘young lady’Nagano 2013 rGyDB: 0725

9.0.1Old Chinese4

Chinese (Old/Mid)ni̯o/ni̯wo ‘woman / lady / girl’HPTB, p. 173 gives a wrong GSR number “74a”.Chou 72: 94a-e
Chinese (Old)ni̯ang ‘lady, woman, mother’[Source note] (Not in GSR #730)Matisoff 03 HPTB: 174
Chinese (Old)nrjaʔ ‘female’Baxter 92: 1855

9.0.2Middle Chinese2

Chinese (Middle)ni̯ang ‘lady, woman, mother’Karlgren 23 ChDc: 541

9.0.3Modern Chinese1

Cite this entry

STEDT etymon #5595, *nya-ŋ/k ‘WOMAN’.
Stable link: https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/5595
Data: STEDT v1.0 (2017). Accessed: [date].
References: cf. HPTB p. 173
BibTeX
@misc{stedt-5595,
  title  = {{*nya-ŋ/k 'WOMAN'}},
  author = {STEDT},
  year   = {2017},
  note   = {Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) v1.0, etymon #5595},
  url    = {https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/5595}
}