Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/ŋwa

Etymology

 * Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *ngwjəɣ (Coblin, 1986)
 * Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *ŋwa (Matisoff, STEDT; Benedict, 1972; Weidert, 1987; LaPolla, 1987); *ngwa(*B) (Coblin, 1986)

Some have noticed a similarity with 🇨🇬 (whence 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬) (Koenraad, 1999; Chang, 1988).

Compare 🇨🇬 /, 🇨🇬. Because of the restricted geographic distribution of this Tai etymon, Benedict (1972) suspects Chinese to be a loan from Tai: Li (1976) concludes the Tai item is not a loan from Chinese as it is not found in northern Tai dialects. The relationship between this PST root and the Tai comparanda remains unclear.



Noun

 * 1) cattle, ox

Descendants

 * Old Chinese:  (B-S),  (ZS) ("cattle")
 * (in the oracle bone script) 牛-oracle.svg
 * Middle Chinese:


 * Modern Mandarin
 * Beijing: (niú, )
 * Cantonese
 * Guangzhou:
 * Wu
 * Shanghai:
 * Min
 * Min Nan
 * Taiwan:
 * Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
 * Lolo-Burmese
 * Burmish
 * Written
 * Loloish
 * Northern Loloish
 * Yi (Liangshan):, ,
 * Central Loloish
 * Yi (Liangshan):, ,
 * Central Loloish