Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/mej

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *myəy ~ sməy/smyəy (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *mey (Matisoff, STEDT; Weidert, 1987; LaPolla, 1987; Benedict, 1972)

Comparing Chinese 火 (huǒ) with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *mey is problematic. Sagart (1999) reconstructed the Chinese word as /*m̥ˤɨjʔ/, citing its variant 𤈦 (huǐ) (an ancient Wu dialect word) as the basis for reconstructing a voiceless bilabial initial. This was however revised to a uvular initial in the Baxter-Sagart (2011) system, perhaps in accordance with Zhengzhang (2003). Li (1980) reconstructed it as *hwərX, and commented that it likely came from an earlier *hmərX. The word "fire" is classified by some to belong to the same family as some words meaning "to destroy", represented by 毁. Compare Written Tibetan སྨྱེ་བ (smye ba, “(archaic) damaged, impaired, poor quality”).

Compare Proto-Tai *ʰmajᶜ (“to burn (intr.)”) (Thai ไหม้ (mâi), Lao ໄໝ້ (mai)).

Fire.

*mej

1. fire

• Old Chinese:

  火 (huǒ) /*qʷʰˤəjʔ/ (B-S); /*qʰʷaːlʔ/ (ZS) ("fire") (see note)

  and perhaps dialectally

  𤈦 (huǐ) /*m̥əjʔ/ (B-S); /*m̥ɯlʔ/ (ZS) ("(ancient Wu dialect) fire")

  燬／毁 (huǐ) /*m̥ajʔ/ (B-S); /*m̥ralʔ/ (ZS) ("(ancient Qi dialect) fire")

  (火 in the oracle bone script)

  • Middle Chinese: 火 (huɑX)

    → Japanese: 火 (か, ​ka)
    Korean: 화 (火, hwa)
    Vietnamese: hoả (火)

    • Mandarin
      • Beijing: 火 (huǒ) (huǒ, /xu̯ɔ²¹⁴/)
      • Chengdu: 火 (huǒ) /xo⁵³/
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 火 (huǒ) /fɔː³⁵/
      • Taishan: 火 (huǒ) /fu̯ɔ⁵⁵/
    • Hakka
      • Meixian: 火 (huǒ) /fo³¹/
      • Sixian: 火 (huǒ) /fo³¹/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 火 (huǒ) /hɯ³⁴/
  • Min
    • Min Bei

      Jian'ou: 火 (huǒ) /xo²¹/

    • Min Dong

      Fuzhou: 火 (huǒ) /huoi³³/ (colloquial), /huo³³/ (literary)

    • Min Nan

      Hokkien:

      Xiamen, Taipei: 火 (huǒ) /he⁵³/ (colloquial), /hɔ̃⁵³/ (literary)

      Zhangzhou: 火 (huǒ) /hue⁵³/ (colloquial), /hɔ̃⁵³/ (literary)

      Quanzhou: 火 (huǒ) /hə⁵⁵⁴/ (colloquial), /hɔ̃⁵⁵⁴/ (literary)

      Teochew: 火 /hue⁵²/

• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: མེ (me, “fire, flame”)
    • Lepcha: ᰕᰧ (mi, “fire”)
  • Mahakiranti
    • Kiranti
      • Eastern Kiranti = Rai
        • Athpare: मि (mi, “fire”)
        • Yamphu: मि (mi, “fire”)
      • Western Kiranti
        • Khaling: मि (mi, “fire”)
        • Dumi: मी (mi, “fire”)
• Tangut-Qiang
  • Tangut
    • Tangut: 𗜐 (*mə̱¹, “fire”), 𘖐 (*mjɨ², “fire”)
  • rGyalrongic
    • Japhug: smi
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Proto-Lolo-Burmese: *s/ʔ-mej²
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: မီး (mi:, “fire; light”)
    • Loloish
      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꃆꄔ (mup dut, “fire”)
• Proto-Karen: *hmeᴮ (Luangthongkum, 2013)
  • S'gaw Karen: မ့ၣ် (maỳ), မ့ၣ်အူ (maỳ ʼoo)
  • Western Pwo: မ့ၪ
  • Pa'o Karen: မေႏ
  • Western Kayah: ꤗꤤ꤬ (mì)
• Proto-Tani: *a-mə
  • Tangam: ame
• Proto-Kuki-Chin: *maj
  • Khomic
    • Khumi Chin: mai
  • Northern
    • Zou: mei
  • Central
    • Mizo: mei
• Manipuri: ꯃꯩ (mei)

• *bʷar ~ pʷar (“to burn, to ignite; fire”)
• *hwa-t (“to shine; light”)
• *m-t(w)əj-n ~ m-ti-s (“water, liquid, fluid”)