Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/r/g-na

Etymology

 * Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *r-njəɣ  (Coblin, 1986)
 * Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *r/g-na (Matisoff, STEDT; LaPolla, 1987; French, 1983); *g-na (Benedict, 1972)

Note that Proto-Sino-Tibetan has the same root *na for "ear" and "nose", distinguishing their meanings only with prefixes ("nose": ). A parallelism exists in Chinese (wén < OC *mun, "to smell; to hear").

For Chinese 耳, some modern Northern Min dialects attest the -Ø ~ -ŋ variation in the final (e.g. Jianyang ) as recorded in the historical rhyme book . The Hokkien colloquial reading (if not a substrate borrowing) not only suggests an older nasal rhyme, it also appears to point to a proto-initial of <.

Noun

 * 1) ear

Verb

 * 1) to hear, to listen

Descendants

 * Old Chinese: ; ,
 * Middle Chinese:, ,
 * Modern Mandarin
 * Beijing: ("ear") (ěr, ),,  (èr, )
 * Cantonese
 * Guangzhou:
 * Wu
 * Shanghai:
 * Min
 * Hokkien
 * Taiwan:  (colloquial),  (literary)
 * Himalayish
 * Tibeto-Kanauri
 * Bodic
 * Tibetan
 * Written
 * Kamarupan
 * North Assam
 * Sal
 * Bodo-Koch
 * Bodo-Garo
 * Garo
 * Jingpho-Asakian
 * Tangut-Qiang
 * rGyalrongic
 * Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
 * Lolo-Burmese
 * Burmish
 * Loloish
 * Northern Loloish
 * Yi (Liangshan):, ,
 * (Luangthongkum, 2013)
 * Loloish
 * Northern Loloish
 * Yi (Liangshan):, ,
 * (Luangthongkum, 2013)
 * (Luangthongkum, 2013)