Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/p-wap

Etymology

 * Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
 * Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *p-wap (Matisoff, STEDT), *r/s/p-wap (Matisoff, 2003)

The aspirated initial of Old Chinese is probably due to sound symbolism and it indicates breathing (Schuessler, 2007). Compare 🇨🇬, possibly from an earlier *p-hoːc < *p-soːs / *p-hoːs, with an original fricative coda, as 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 seem to suggest (Ferlus, 2007). Similar examples of sound symbolism for words having to do with “breathing” and “wind” are also recognizable in Indo-European languages, cf. 🇨🇬, connected with 🇨🇬, from the root 🇨🇬; and 🇨🇬, from 🇨🇬.

🇨🇬 may be derived from 🇨🇬, an allofamic variant of this root (Matisoff, 2003), but it might also be a loan from 🇨🇬.

See also 🇨🇬, whence 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, where the presence of the medial *-w- is explained by the fact that this word was borrowed in PT when it was already pronounced as *pʰuɑs (Pittayaporn, 2009).

Noun

 * 1) lung

Descendants

 * Old Chinese:  (B-S),  (ZS) ("lung")
 * Middle Chinese: phjojH (/pʰʉɐiH/) ("lung")
 * Modern Mandarin
 * Beijing:
 * Yue
 * Cantonese:
 * Min Nan
 * Xiamen: