Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/hljak

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

Etymology

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *hliek (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *l-tsyak (Matisoff, STEDT)

An areal word in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It's difficult to determine in every case whether the commonality was due to borrowing or inheritedness, or to determine the source. Compare Proto-Tai *ʰlekᴰ (Thai เหล็ก (lèk)), Proto-Hmong *hluwᶜ, Proto-Mien *hrɛkᴰ, Latvian dzelzs, Russian желе́зо (želézo) and perhaps Proto-Vietic *k-rac (Modern Vietnamese sắt). See Ferrous metallurgy on Wikipedia.

Definitions

*hljak

1. iron, iron instrument

Descendants

• Old Chinese: 鐵／铁 (*l̥iːg (Zhengzhang Shangfang), *l̥ˁik (Baxter-Sagart))
  • Middle Chinese: 鐵／铁 (tiě) /tʰet/

**:

→ Japanese: 鉄 (てつ, ​tetsu)
Korean: 철 (鐵, cheol)
Vietnamese: thiết (鐵)

• • • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 鐵／铁 (tiě) ("iron") (tiě, /tʰi̯ɛ²¹⁴/)
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 鐵／铁 (tiě) /tʰiːt̚³/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 鐵／铁 (tiě) /tʰiɪ̆ʔ⁵⁵/
  • Min
    • Min Nan
      • Taiwan: 鐵／铁 (tiě) /tʰiʔ³/
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: ལྕགས (lcags, “iron”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Written Burmese: ဇက် (jak, “bit (for horse)”)
• Proto-Karen: *thaɁᴰ (Luangthongkum, 2013) (perhaps a loanword)
  • S'gaw Karen: ထး (hṭä)
  • Western Pwo: ထၭ

See also

• *sjam (“iron”)
• *sjaːl ~ sjiːr (“iron”)