Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/d-kʷəj-n

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *d-kʷəy-n (Matisoff, STEDT; Mortensen, 2012); *kwiy=*kwəy ⪤ **d-k-wiy (LaPolla, 1987); *kwiy (Chou, 1972; Weidert, 1987; Benedict, 1972); *kwəy (Chou, 1972; Weidert, 1987)

A widely attested root in Sino-Tibetan languages.

The nasal suffix -n is reconstructed solely on the basis of the Chinese comparandum "犬", where it is said to function as a "collective plural" suffix. This word has almost been completely replaced by 狗 (gǒu, from Old Chinese *Cə.kˁroʔ, "dog") in modern varieties, which Schuessler (2007) considers to be a substrate loanword of Hmong-Mien origin (Proto-Hmong-Mien *qluwˣ (“dog”)), which is in turn perhaps an Austronesian loan, cf. Proto-Austronesian *(u-)(ŋ)kuɣkuɣ (“dog”) (Benedict, 1996). Compare Japanese いぬ (inu, “dog”) (< *iŋku (signature shift), from **i-ŋku[kuɣ] (typical reduction on the right)), and Middle Korean 가히 (gahi, “dog”) (Modern 개 (gae)).

Compare Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”) (whence English hound, Latin canis, Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn), Sanskrit श्वन् (śván)), where the -n suffixed form is preserved in many modern reflexes.

Eastern Han Dynasty, a standing statue of a dog from Sichuan, China.

*d-kʷəj-n

1. dog

• Old Chinese: 犬 /*kʰʷeːnʔ/ (ZS), /*kʷʰˤenʔ/ (B-S) ("dog")

  (in the oracle bone script)

  • Middle Chinese: 犬 (/kʰwen^X/)

• • →   Japanese:  犬 (けん, ​ken)
          Korean:  견 (犬, gyeon)
          Vietnamese:  khuyển (犬)

• • • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 犬 ("dog") (quǎn, /t͡ɕʰy̯ɛn²¹⁴/)
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 犬 /hyːn³⁵/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 犬 /t͡ɕʰyø³⁴/
  • Min
    • Min Nan
      • Taiwan: 犬 /kʰi̯en⁵¹/
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: ཁྱི (khyi, “dog”)
• Tangut-Qiang
  • Northern Tangut
    • Tangut: 𗃝 (kə, /*kə⁵⁵/)
  • rGyalrongic
    • Situ: kʰəna, kʰə (possibly a loan from Tibetan)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: ခွေး (hkwe:, “dog”)
    • Loloish
      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꈌ (ke, “dog”)
• Karen: *thwiᴮ (Luangthongkum, 2013)
  • Sgaw: ထွံၣ် (thwì, “dog”)

• *s-pjaŋ (“wild dog”)
• *s-k-jwal (“wild dog, wolf, jackal, dhole”)
• *m-par ~ pra (“wild dog, wolf”)