Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/tsil

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *tsil (Matisoff, STEDT; Chou, 1972)

Old Chinese 脂 (OC *kji, “fat”) possibly derives from this root, although the initials do not match. According to Schuessler (2007), words belonging to 旨 (OC *kjiʔ) phonetic series generally show a velar initial in Old Chinese. However, in modern Min varieties they sometimes have multiple reflexes, some of which retain the original velar, while others exhibit a palatalization:

• 旨 (OC *kjiʔ, “fine, tasteful”) > Mandarin zhǐ, Hokkien /t͡ɕi⁵³/ (POJ chí) (? < Proto-Min *tšiᴮ).
• 指 (OC *kjiʔ, “finger”) > Mandarin zhǐ, Hokkien /ki⁵³/ (POJ kí) or /t͡saɪ⁵³/ (POJ chái) (? < Proto-Min *-kiᴮ ~ *-tšiᴮ respectively).[1]

Earliest layers of Min have escaped the first palatalization of velars, dated by Schuessler (2010) to the Western Han period [206 BCE — 9 CE], so it is generally assumed that Proto-Min separated from mainstream Chinese before that time (Baxter-Sagart, 2014: 33). Therefore these multiple reflexes in 旨 (OC *kjiʔ) phonetic series suggest that it originally had an initial velar stop, but underwent an early palatalization so early in the Zhou period [1046 BCE — 256 BCE] that it could also be used to write words with dental initials (Schuessler, 2007). This could explain the difficulty in reconstructing the nature of the initial segment of Old Chinese 脂 (OC *kji, “fat, grease”).

In Sino-Tibetan languages words meaning “grease, fat” can be reconstructed with the final *-il in PTB, but their initial consonants are not easy to reconcile with the Chinese comparandum, e.g. Tibetan ཚིལ་བུ (tshil bu, “grease, fat”), Burmese ဆီ (hci, “fat, oil”), but see also Khmer កន្ឋុល (kɑnthol, “fat, obese”) (Schuessler, 2007).

*tsil

1. fat, grease
2. oil

• Old Chinese: 脂 (zhī) /*kij/ (B-S), /*kji/ (ZS) ("fat, grease")
  • Middle Chinese: 脂 (zhī) tsyij (/t͡ɕiɪ/) ("fat, grease")

5=ji

**:

→ Japanese: 脂 (し, ​shi)
Korean: 지 (脂, ji)
Vietnamese: chi, chỉ (脂)

• • • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 脂 (zhī, /ʈ͡ʂʐ̩⁵⁵/, “fat, grease”)
    • Yue
      • Cantonese: 脂 (/t͡siː⁵⁵/, “fat, grease”)
  • Min Nan
    • Xiamen: 脂 (/t͡ɕi⁴⁴/, “fat, grease”)
• Tangut-Qiang
  • Northern Tangut
    • Tangut: 𘙏𘙆 (*tsjọ¹ wiə¹, “fat”)[2]
    • Qiangic
      • Pumi: tsʰɿ³⁵ (“fat (pig)”)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Western Himalayish
      • Kanauri: tsil (“marrow”)
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: ཚིལ (tshil, “grease, fat”), ཚིལ་བུ (tshil bu, “grease, fat”); ཚིལ་ལུ (tshil lu, “animal fat”); གྲོད་ཚིལ (grod tshil, “lard, suet”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese:

    *tsu¹ (Matisoff, 1978)

    • Loloish:

      *tsi¹ (Bradley, 1979)

      • Yi: ꋌ (cy, “fat person”)
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: အဆီ (a.hci /⁠ʔəsʰì⁠/, “fat, grease”), ဆီ (hci /⁠sʰì⁠/, “oil”)

• *tsow-s (“fat, omentum”)
• *s-bʷa(m/p) (“fat; swell; rounded part”)
• *s-l(a/u)p (“fat person”)
• *s-rjak (“fat, grease, oil (vegetal)”)