Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/g-sum

Proto-Sino-Tibetan

Etymology

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *g-sum (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *g-sum (Matisoff, STEDT; Benedict, 1972; Chou, 1972; LaPolla, 1987)

This is perhaps the most stable numeral in Proto-Sino-Tibetan, with virtually no daughter language failing to show some reflex of this root. This stability can be attributed to various factors: the stability of the consonants "s" and "m", and the saliency of the numeral THREE itself. The velar prefix g/k- is the only prefix reconstructable for this root (another manifestation of well-preservedness); this is of course disregarding other prefixes in modern languages which resulted from an innovative prefix run in all of the lower numerals, for example Jingpho (m- in 3-5).

Some languages also show /a/ vocalism (e.g. Chinese), which some dismiss (somewhat unconvincingly) as secondary development. It is very likely that ablaut of *u ~ *a existed in the proto-language, i.e. *g-sum ⪤ *g-sam, analogous to *b-suŋ ~ b-saŋ (“fragrance”) (Matisoff, 1997).

Numeral

Proto-Sino-Tibetan numerals
ONE	*ʔit *kat *tjak ~ g-t(j)ik
TWO	*g/s-ni-s
THREE	*g-sum
FOUR	*b-ləj
FIVE	*l/b-ŋa
SIX	*d-k-ruk
SEVEN	*s-ni-s
EIGHT	*b-r-gjat ~ b-g-rjat
NINE	*d/s-kəw
TEN	*gip *ts(j)i(j) ~ tsjaj
TWENTY	*m-kul
HUNDRED	*b-r-gja
THOUSAND	*s-tawŋ

1. three

Descendants

• Old Chinese: 三 /*srum/ ("three"), /*s.rəm-s/ ("thrice")

  Note: The initial *sr- in Old Chinese irregularly developed into Middle Chinese *s- (not the expected *ʃ-), possibly due to influence by the next numeral 四 (sì) (*s.l- > s-) (⇒ *b-ləj), FOUR.

  • Middle Chinese: 三

**:

→ Japanese: 三 (さん, ​san)
Korean: 삼 (三, sam)
Vietnamese: tam (三)

• • → (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Tai: *saːm (“three”) (whence (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Thai สาม (sǎam), (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Lao ສາມ (sām))

    • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 三 ("three") (sān, /san⁵⁵/)
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 三 /sɑːm⁵⁵/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 三 /sᴇ⁵³/
  • Min
    • Min Nan
      • Taiwan: 三 /sã⁵⁵/ (colloquial), /sam⁵⁵/ (literary)
• Kamarupan
  • "North Assam"
    • Tani

      /*ɦum/ ("three") (Sun, 1993)

  • Kuki-Chin

    /*thum/ ("three") (VanBik, 2009)

    • Central Chin
      • Lushai [Mizo]: thum (“three”)
  • "Naga"
    • Northern Naga

      /*C̬-sum/ ("three") (French, 1983)

    • Tangkhulic

      /*tʰum/ ("three") (Mortensen, 2012)

• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: གསུམ (gsum, “three”)
          • Modern Tibetan (Lhasa): /sum˥˥/
    • Lepcha: ᰠᰦᰮ (sám, “three”)
    • Tamangic

      /*ᴮsom/ ("three") (Mazaudon, 1994)

      • Tamang (Sahu): २सोम (²som, “three”)
  • Newar
    • Newar (Dolakhali): सों (sõ, “three”)
    • Newar (Kathmandu): सो (swɔ, “three”)
  • Mahakiranti
    • Kiranti
      • Eastern Kiranti = Rai
        • Limbu: ᤛᤢᤶᤛᤡ (sum si, “three”)
• Jingpho-Asakian
  • Jingpho
    • Jingpho [Kachin]: masum (“three”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Written Burmese: သုံး (sum:, “three”)
        • Modern Burmese (Rangoon): /θóʊɴ/
    • Loloish

      /*C-sum²/ ("three") (Bradley, 1979)

      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꌕ (suo, “three”)
      • Central Loloish
        • Lisu (Southern): ꓢꓺ (sɑ̱, “three”) (ꓢꓽ (sɑ̀) / ꓢꓼ (sɑ̱̀) before most mid tone classifiers)
• Karenic:

  /*səmᴬ/ ("three") (Luangthongkum, 2013)

  • Sgaw: သၢ (sö, “three”)
• Baic
  • Bai: sanl (“three”)