Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/s-riŋ ~ s-r(j)aŋ

Etymology

 * Proto-Sino-Tibetan:
 * *sring ("live, bear") (Coblin, 1986)
 * Proto-Tibeto-Burman:
 * *s-riŋ ~ *s-raŋ ("live, alive, green, raw") (Benedict, 1972) - later modified to *śriŋ, explaining the ‑a‑ in Written Burmese hraŋ as being "conditioned by the initial cluster".
 * *s-riŋ ~ *s-rɑŋ ("live, bear, be born, fresh (e.g. greens)"), *śriŋ ("live, alive, green, raw") (Chou, 1972)
 * *s-ring(*A) ("live, bear") (Coblin, 1986)
 * *s-riŋ, *s-raŋ ("live") (Weidert, 1987)
 * *śriN ("live") (Michailovsky, 1991)
 * *s-riŋ ⪤ *s-r(y)aŋ ("live, alive, green, raw, give birth") (Matisoff, STEDT)

A well-attested root, (in particular) with its parallel allofams reflected in Chinese in different forms, including the original vocalism variation *‑a‑ ⪤ *‑i‑ and/or forms lacking medial *r. Schuessler (2007) argued that this was originally a ST terminative final *-ŋ derivation from PST, hence literally "come into existence → give birth → live". The original etymon perhaps survives in Chinese as (Old Chinese, "body, limbs").

The allofam *siŋ appears identical in form to PST ; the two are perhaps related (Schuessler, 2007). The Chinese reflex of the latter is homophonic with  ("new").

Adjective

 * 1) to live
 * 2) alive
 * 3) green
 * 4) raw
 * 5) to give birth

Descendants

 * Old Chinese:
 * (in the oracle bone script) 生-oracle.svg
 * (< ? (Schuessler, 2007))
 * and perhaps
 * Middle Chinese:, , , , , , ,
 * (< ? (Schuessler, 2007))
 * and perhaps
 * Middle Chinese:, , , , , , ,
 * and perhaps
 * Middle Chinese:, , , , , , ,
 * and perhaps
 * Middle Chinese:, , , , , , ,


 * Modern Mandarin
 * Beijing:, (shēng, ),  (qīng, ),  (cāng, ), ,  (xìng, ),  (jīng, ),  (qíng, )
 * Himalayish
 * Tibeto-Kanauri
 * Bodic
 * Tibetan
 * Written
 * Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
 * Burmish
 * Burmish