Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/lwa(ː)j

This Proto-Sino-Tibetan entry contains reconstructed words 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

Etymology

Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
- Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *lwa(ː)y (Matisoff, STEDT); *lway (Weidert, 1987; Benedict, 1972); *s-l(w)a-y (LaPolla, 1987)

The quantity of the nuclear vowel has not yet been established, although Jingpho loi ~ lwe (“easy”) doublet suggests that it might have been long[1] (Matisoff, 2003: 213).

Matisoff (STEDT) and Schuessler (2007) propose 易 (OC *leːɡs, “easy”) as Chinese comparandum. The presence of a labio-velar approximant as well as a velar coda in Chinese is confirmed by the fact that the character was borrowed to write 役 (OC *ɢʷeɡ, “to do service, do labour”) in some classical texts predating the Han dynasty. 易 (OC *leːɡs, “easy”) should not be confused with his homograph 易 (OC *leɡ, “to change”), a derivate of 移 (OC *lal, “to change”) via k-suffixation, i.e. OC *lek < *lajk < *laj + -k.

According to Schuessler (2007), 易 (OC *leːɡs, “easy”) could be compared with Tibetan ལེགས་པོ (legs po, “good, beautiful”) and ཡག་པོ (yag po, “good, fine”) due to phonetic similarity. However, Matisoff (STEDT) reconstructs Proto-Sino-Tibetan *l(j)a(k/ŋ) (“good, beautiful”) for these two Tibetan words.

Adjective

*lwa(ː)j

easy

Descendants

Old Chinese: 易 /*lek-s/ (? < /*ɴ(ə)-lek-s/, see Sagart, 2007) (B-S), /*leːɡs/ (ZS) ("easy")
(in the oracle bone script)
- Middle Chinese: 易 (yeH, /jiᴇ^H/) ("easy")
  - Modern Chinese
    - Beijing: 易 (yì, /i⁵¹/, “easy”)
    - Cantonese: 易 (/jiː²²/, “easy”)
    - Wu: 易 (/ɦi²³/, “easy”)
- Min Nan
  - Xiamen: 易 (/i²²/, “easy”)
Central Naga:
*m-laj (Bruhn, 2014)
- Lotha: ela (“easy, cheap”)
Angami-Pochuri
- Angami: meli (“easy”)
Tangkhulic
*plaj (Mortensen, 2012)
- Ukhrul: kəpaj (“easy”)
Meitei [Manipuri]: লৈবা (laiba, “easy”)
Tangut-Qiang
- Northern Tangut
  - Tangut: 𗧙 (ljɨ, /*lʲʏ³⁵/, “easy”)
Sal
- Jingpho [Kachin]: loi (“easy”), lwe (“easy”)
Lolo-Burmese
- Burmish
  - Written Burmese: လွယ် (lwai, “easy”)
- Loloish
  - Yi: ꆻ (liet, “easy”)

Notes

The reflex -oi in Jingpho comes from both PTB *-waj and PTB *-waːj rhymes, but Jingpho -we only comes from PTB *-waːj.

[1] The reflex -oi in Jingpho comes from both PTB *-waj and PTB *-waːj rhymes, but Jingpho -we only comes from PTB *-waːj.