Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/pljum

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *plyum (Matisoff, STEDT)

This root is mainly attested in Old Chinese, Tibetan and Karenic branch of Tibeto-Burman.

Chinese has a large family of words written with characters belonging to 夆 (OC *pʰoŋ) phonetic series. Old Chinese 蜂 (OC *pʰoŋ) means exactly “bee, wasp”, while 鋒 (OC *pʰoŋ) indicates a “pointed weapon”. According to Schuessler (2007), the verb 縫 (OC *boŋ, “to sew”), and its exopassive nominal derivative 縫 (OC *boŋs, “seam”), are also related to this root. One may also consider Old Chinese 峰 (OC *pʰoŋ, “mountain peak”) as a member of this word family. Compare Khmer កំពូល (kɑmpuul, “summit, peak”) and Khmer ព្រំ (prum, “limit; peak of a roof”).

Tibetan བུང་བ (bung ba, “bee”) and Tibetan སྦྲང་བུ (sbrang bu, “bee, fly”) belong to different roots (Coblin, 1986). The former should be listed here, while the latter originates from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-b-(r/j)aŋ (“bee, fly”), whence Old Chinese 蠅 (OC *b·lɯŋ, “fly”).

*pljum

1. bee
2. wasp

• Old Chinese:

  蜂 (fēng) /*pʰ(r)oŋ/ (B-S), /*pʰoŋ/ (ZS) ("bee, wasp")

  鋒／锋 (fēng) /*pʰ(r)oŋ/ (B-S), /*pʰoŋ/ (ZS) ("point of a weapon")

  縫／缝 /*(mə-)b(r)oŋ/ (B-S), /*boŋ/ (ZS) ("to sew"); 縫／缝 /*C.b(r)oŋ-s/ (B-S), /*boŋ-s/ (ZS) ("seam")

  峰 (fēng) /*pʰoŋ/ (ZS) ("summit, peak")

  • Middle Chinese:

    蜂 (phjowng /⁠pʰɨoŋ⁠/, “bee, wasp”)

    • → Proto-Southwestern Tai: *pʰɤŋᶜ (“bee; beeswax”) (whence Thai ผึ้ง (pʉ̂ng), etc)

    鋒／锋 (phjowng /⁠pʰɨoŋ⁠/, “point of a weapon”)

    縫／缝 (bjowng /⁠bɨoŋ⁠/, “to sew”); 縫／缝 (bjowngH /⁠bɨoŋ^H⁠/, “seam”)

    峰 (phjowng /⁠pʰɨoŋ⁠/, “summit, peak”)

    • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 蜂 (fēng, /fɤŋ⁵⁵/, “bee, wasp”); 鋒／锋 (fēng, /fɤŋ⁵⁵/, “point of a weapon”); 縫／缝 (féng, /fɤŋ³⁵/, “to sew”), 縫／缝 (fèng, /fɤŋ⁵¹/, “seam”); 峰 (fēng, /fɤŋ⁵⁵/, “summit, peak”)
  • Min Nan
    • Xiamen: 蜂 (/pʰaŋ⁴⁴, hɔŋ⁴⁴/, “bee, wasp”); 鋒／锋 (/hɔŋ⁴⁴/, “point of a weapon”); 縫／缝 (/paŋ²⁴, hɔŋ²⁴/, “to sew”), 縫／缝 (/pʰaŋ²², hɔŋ²²/, “seam”); 峰 (/hɔŋ⁴⁴/, “summit, peak”)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: བུང་བ (bung ba, “bee”)
• Karen: *phrɨNᴬ (“bee; wasp; hornet”) (Luangthongkum, 2013)
  • S'gaw Karen: ဖျၢ (hpluh, “wasp; hornet”)
  • Western Kayah: ꤕꤜꤢꤦ꤭ (plūe, “bee”)

• *s-b-(r/j)aŋ (“bee, fly”)