Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/pljum
Proto-Sino-Tibetan
Etymology
- Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
- Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *plyum (Matisoff, STEDT)
This root is mainly attested in Old Chinese, Tibetan and Karenic branch of Tibeto-Burman.
Chinese has a large family of words written with characters belonging to 夆 (OC *pʰoŋ) phonetic series. Old Chinese 蜂 (OC *pʰoŋ) means exactly “bee, wasp”, while 鋒 (OC *pʰoŋ) indicates a “pointed weapon”. According to Schuessler (2007), the verb 縫 (OC *boŋ, “to sew”), and its exopassive nominal derivative 縫 (OC *boŋs, “seam”), are also related to this root. One may also consider Old Chinese 峰 (OC *pʰoŋ, “mountain peak”) as a member of this word family. Compare Khmer កំពូល (kɑmpuul, “summit, peak”) and Khmer ព្រំ (prum, “limit; peak of a roof”).
Tibetan བུང་བ (bung ba, “bee”) and Tibetan སྦྲང་བུ (sbrang bu, “bee, fly”) belong to different roots (Coblin, 1986). The former should be listed here, while the latter originates from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-b-(r/j)aŋ (“bee, fly”), whence Old Chinese 蠅 (OC *b·lɯŋ, “fly”).
Noun
*pljum
- bee
- wasp
Descendants
- Old Chinese:
- 蜂 /*pʰ(r)oŋ/ (B-S), /*pʰoŋ/ (ZS) ("bee, wasp")
- 鋒 /*pʰ(r)oŋ/ (B-S), /*pʰoŋ/ (ZS) ("point of a weapon")
- 縫 /*(mə-)b(r)oŋ/ (B-S), /*boŋ/ (ZS) ("to sew"); 縫 /*C.b(r)oŋ-s/ (B-S), /*boŋ-s/ (ZS) ("seam")
- 峰 /*pʰoŋ/ (ZS) ("summit, peak")
- Middle Chinese:
- 蜂 (phjowng /pʰɨoŋ/, “bee, wasp”)
- 鋒 (phjowng /pʰɨoŋ/, “point of a weapon”)
- 縫 (bjowng /bɨoŋ/, “to sew”); 縫 (bjowngH /bɨoŋH/, “seam”)
- 峰 (phjowng /pʰɨoŋ/, “summit, peak”)
- Modern Mandarin
- Beijing: 蜂 (fēng, /fɤŋ⁵⁵/, “bee, wasp”); 鋒 (fēng, /fɤŋ⁵⁵/, “point of a weapon”); 縫 (féng, /fɤŋ³⁵/, “to sew”), 縫 (fèng, /fɤŋ⁵¹/, “seam”); 峰 (fēng, /fɤŋ⁵⁵/, “summit, peak”)
- Min Nan
- Xiamen: 蜂 (/pʰaŋ⁴⁴, hɔŋ⁴⁴/, “bee, wasp”); 鋒 (/hɔŋ⁴⁴/, “point of a weapon”); 縫 (/paŋ²⁴, hɔŋ²⁴/, “to sew”), 縫 (/pʰaŋ²², hɔŋ²²/, “seam”); 峰 (/hɔŋ⁴⁴/, “summit, peak”)
- Himalayish
- Tibeto-Kanauri
- Bodic
- Tibetan
- Written Tibetan: བུང་བ (bung ba, “bee”)
- Tibetan
- Bodic
- Tibeto-Kanauri
- Karenic
- Karen: ပျာံ် (pləာi် /phlə³³/, “hornet”)
Synonyms
- *s-b-(r/j)aŋ (“bee, fly”)