Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/s(j)am-s

This Proto-Sino-Tibetan entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Sino-Tibetan

Etymology

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *sjəm (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *s(y)am-s (Matisoff, STEDT); *səm (French, 1983); *sam (Coblin, 1986; Michailovsky, 1991)

Noun

*s(j)am-s

1. soul, mind, spirit
2. heart
3. breath, voice

Descendants

• Old Chinese: 心 (xīn) /*səm/ (B-S), /*slɯm/ (ZS) ("heart, mind")
  • Middle Chinese: 心 (xīn) /siɪm/

**:

→ Japanese: 心 (しん, ​shin)
Korean: 심 (心, sim)
Vietnamese: tâm (心)

• • • Mandarin
      • Beijing: 心 (xīn) (xīn, /ɕin⁵⁵/)
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 心 (xīn) /sɐm⁵⁵/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 心 (xīn) /ɕɪ̆ɲ⁵³/
  • Min
    • Min Nan
      • Taiwan: 心 (xīn) /ɕim⁵⁵/
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: སེམས (sems, “mind, heart, cognition”), སེམས་པ (sems pa, “to think, reflect, apprehend, contemplate”), བསམས (bsams, “thought”)
    • Tamangic

      *ᴬson, *ᴬsan, *ᴬsam (“mind, heart”) (Mazaudon, 1994)

  • Kiranti

    /*sam/ ("breath, lung") (Michailovsky, 1991)

• Jingpho-Asakian
  • Jingpho
    • Jingpho [Kachin]: nsen (“sound, voice”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: သံ (sam), အသံ (a.sam, “sound, voice, noise”)

See also

• *s/k-niŋ (“brain, heart, mind”)
• *s-njam (“think, brain”)
• *s(j)am ~ s(j)aŋ (“throat”)