Studies in Asian
GeolinguisticsIV

ILCAA Joint Research Project 2015 - 2017 “Studies in Asian Geolinguistics”
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Studies in Asian Geolinguistics IV— WIND —Report of ILCAA Joint Research Project 2015–2017“Studies in Asian Geolinguistics”
First published 2017
Edited by Yoshio Saito & Mitsuaki Endo
Copyright © 2017 Individual Contributors

ISBN 987-4-86337-264-1
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Table of Contents“Wind” in Asian Languages
Rei FUKUI, “Wind” in Korean ………………………………………………………………… 01
Mika FUKAZAWA, “Wind” in Ainu …………………………………………………………… 04
Yoshio SAITÔ, “Wind” in Mongolic and Turkic……………………………………………… 06

Kenji YAGI, Takashi UEYA and Fumiki SUZUKI, “Wind” in Sinitic………………………… 08

Kazue IWASA, Hiroyuki SUZUKI, Keita KURABE, Shiho EBIHARA, Satoko SHIRAI,
and Ikuko MATSUSE, Wind: Tibeto-Burman ……………………………………………… 10
Yoshihisa TAGUCHI, “Wind” in Hmong-Mien……………………………………………… 14

Mitsuaki ENDO, Wind: Tai-Kadai ……………………………………………………………… 16
Mika KONDO, “Wind” in Austroasiatic Languages …………………………………………… 18
Atsuko UTSUMI, “Wind” in Austronesian Languages ………………………………………… 20
Noboru YOSHIOKA, Wind: South Asia (IE (Aryan, Iranian, Nuristani), Dravidian,Andamanese, Burushaski) …………………………………………………………………… 22
Yoichi NAGATO, Wind: Semitic Languages …………………………………………………… 24
Yoshio SAITÔ, Words for “Wind” in Asian Languages: A Brief Overview …………………… 26
ArticleHiroyuki SUZUKI, A Geolinguistic Description of Terms for ‘Wind’ in Tibetic Languagesof the EasternTibetosphere………………………………………………………………… 27

Cover photo:https://pixabay.com/en/dandelion-floating-flower-nature-1931080/

“Wind” in Korean

2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
The form [pa-ram] is most widespread throughout
the Korean peninsula. Other forms are found only in
specific regions.
The Middle Korean form /pʌrʌm/ (LL) has somephonological characteristics: it has a so-called minimal
vowel (Samuel Martin’s term) in each syllable and insuch cases it predictably has LL pitch.
As for the development of the modern forms from
MK /pʌrʌm/, the expected form is [pa-rɨm], because
the vowel /ʌ/ in the second syllable normally becomes/ɨ/ from the 16th century so that the modern standard
form /param/ can be said to be anomalous. However,parallel examples are found, such as the following:

1. Classification of word forms
Modern standard word for “wind” is /param/.
There is very little dialectal variation. Only one
basic form, derived from Middle Korean (MK)/pʌrʌm/, is used. However, the MK vowel /ʌ/ is nolonger distinctive in all dialects except for Cheju
dialects and realizes as either /a/, /e/, /o/, /ʌ/ or /ɨ/,depending on dialects or phonological environments.
The basic correspondence between this MK vowel andits modern reflexes is as follows:MK
Seoul/ʌ/ : /a/ on the first syllable(/e/ [ɔ] or /ɨ/ in a few words)/ɨ/ on the second syllable or later

MK
Seoul
/pʌrʌm/ (LL) ‘wall’ > /param/ (homonym with theword for wind)/sarʌm/ (R-) ‘person’ > /saram/

Some dialects (North Hamgyŏng and SouthChŏlla) are known for having /o/ instead of /a/followed by a bilabial consonant. And Cheju dialects
are known for maintaining a phonologically separate
vowel that corresponds to MK /ʌ/, transcribedvariously according to authors ([o], [ω], [ɐ], [ɒ] and[ɔ]; the author of this paper uses /ʌ/ phonemically and[ɔ] phonetically).
Ogura Shinpei (1944: 1st vol. 7-8) recorded thisword only for Hamgyŏng dialects and for one place inHwanghae dialect.

The two homophonous words appear as /pʌram/ asearly as in the 16th century (cf. Endo (2014)).
There might have been a sub-rule according towhich the instances of the vowel /ʌ/ appearing in thesecond syllable differentiated. Examples of other(‘normal’) cases are:MK
Seoul/mʌzʌm/ ‘mind’ > /maɨm//mʌzʌrh/ ‘village’ > /maɨr//kʌzʌrh/ ‘autumn’ > /kaɨr//hanʌrh/ ‘heaven’ > /hanɨr/

pa-rampa-rɨm (his [u̇] is replaced by [ɨ])po-romIt seems like the second syllable /rʌm/ preferablychanged to /ram/, but the phonetic motivation for thisis not so apparent.
As for the etymology of this word, there have been
five theories (cf. Kim Minsu (1997) and Endo (2014)).

A few more additional forms are recorded in ChoiHakkŭn (1978) :parɛm – in some Kyŏngsang dialectspәrәm – in a Kyŏngsang dialectpɐrɐm – Cheju (same as ‘pɒrɒm’ in Hyŏn (1985))pɐrïm – Cheju (= ‘pɒrɯm’ in Hyŏn (1985))(1) borrowing form Old Chinese / 風 / (*prәm-s,
according to the Baxter-Sagart Old Chinesereconstruction).
(2) borrowing from Altaic languages.
(3) borrowing from Dravidian languages (Kang Kilun(2010).
(4) nominalized form of the verb pur- (‘to blow’)(5) derived from an onomatopoeic element pʌr whichis also included in the verb pɨrɨ- (‘to call’), and soon.

The map shown on the last page of this paper ismade based on the data in Ogura (1944) and Choi
(1978). The above mentioned seven forms areclassified as follows (transcriptions are modified
according to Ogura Shinpei’s transcription):
1a pa-ram, 1b pa-rɛm, 1c pa-rɨm
2 pә-rәm
3 po-rom
4a pʌ-rʌm, 4b pʌ-rɨm

Among these theories the most popular one

1seems to be (4). But this theory does not explain therelationship between the minimal vowel /ʌ/ and thefull vowel /u/ included in the MK word pur-. If thevowel included in the latter verb stem were anotherminimal vowel /ɨ/, then it would have been possible toadmit the alternation between /ʌ/ and /ɨ/. But theexistence of the full vowel /u/ makes it difficult toadmit this theory.
Bibliography
Baxter, W. H. and Laurent Sagart (2011) Baxter-Sagart
Old Chinese reconstruction, version 1.1 (20September 2014)
Choi, Hakkŭn (1978) Han’guk pangŏn sajŏn. (ADictionary of Korean dialects) Seoul: Hyeonmunsa.
Chin T’aeha (1974) Kerim Yusa yŏngu. (A research on
Jīlín lèishì) Seoul: Tower press.
Endo, Mitsuaki (2014) The words for “wind” in the
Eastern Asian languages. Keizai kenkyū 6: 117-129.
Aoyama Gakuin University.
Hyŏn, P’yŏnghyo (1985) Chejudo pang’ŏn yŏngu (AStudy of the Cheju dialect). Seoul: Yiyu
Ch’ulp’ansa.
Kang, Kilun (2010) Pigyoŏnŏhakchŏk ŏwŏn sajŏn.
(Etymological dictionary based on comparative
linguistics) Seoul: Hanguk Munhwasa.
Kim, Minsu (ed.) (1997) Korean Etymological
Dictionary (우리말語源辞典). Seoul: T’aehaksa.
Lee, Iksop et al. (2008) Han’guk pangŏn sajŏn
(Linguistic atlas of Korea). Seoul: T’aehaksa.
Ogura, Shinpei (1944) Chōsengo hōgen no kenkyū(Studies in the Korean dialects). 2 vols. Tokyo:
Iwanami Shoten.
(Rei Fukui)2

風(小倉(1944)・崔(1978))小倉進平 『朝鮮語方言の研究』
地図化プロジェクト

pa-rampa-ram*pa-rɛm*pa-rɨmpa-rɨm*pə-rəm*po-rompʌ-rɨm*pʌ-rʌm*
NR

0

100km
2016/11/19 Seal 8.0

3

“Wind” in Ainu

the subject noun for “wind” and the intransitive verbs
for “stand,” “exist (singular)” and “strong,” (see Map
2; Hattori and Chiri 1960: 58). For example, thedialects of Type A use the expression réra ás (lit. wind
stand). Conversely, for “(wind) stop,” the intransitive
verbs, túy/tuy/otuy “cut off (singular),” isám“non-exist,” and háwke “weak,” are used (Hattori
1964: 229).
The terms wén réra “bad wind” and poró réra “bigwind” represent a typhoon. When a typhoon wasapproaching, Ainu people in Hokkaido would hang a
traditional wooden mortar, nísu, from the beam of thehouse and offer prayers such as “nísu kamúy, cisé
epúnkine! (The god of mortar, protect (this) house!)”(Watanabe et al. 1990: 78). Moreover, as a charm tostop the strong wind, they have a sickle, iyókpe/iyoppe, and swing or stand it against the direction of
the wind. If they do that, the god of wind, réra kamúy,
would shed blood (Watanabe et al. 1992: 71) or the
spinal cord could be damaged with the edge of it(Watanabe et al. 1986: 107-108). Then, the wind will
die down. This means a punishment for harming
humans.

1. Geographical distribution and interpretation
The terms for “wind,” which Hattori and Chiri(1960: 49) reported, are classified into one type. In
most of the Sakhalin dialects, Form A-1, reera, has along vowel ee [eː], which is phonetically equivalent to
the high-pitch accented é in Hokkaido. When the firstsyllable is open in a word with more than one syllable,(C1) V1. (C2) V2 (C3), the high pitch falls on the secondsyllable, V2, in the Hokkaido dialects
In 17th- to 19th–century Japanese writtenmaterials, a long vowel or high pitch on the firstsyllable, V1, is often written as a long vowel withJapanese characters. For example, the word “連いら”/reira/ is recorded as “wind.” in “Matsumae no koto
松前の言,” which is the oldest Japanese manuscript,
estimated to date back to the 17th century. Sato (1999:77) indicates that “連い” /rei/ seems to express thelong vowel sound [reː]. This suggests that the
Hokkaido dialects also had long vowels at that time.
Form A-2, teera, in the Nairo dialect of Sakhalin,tends to have the onset of the first syllable /t/, whichcorresponds to /r/ in the Hokkaido and the other
Sakhalin dialects: for instance, ráp:tap ‘feather,’ráy:tay ‘die,’ rús:tus ‘fur,’ rupús:tupus ‘freeze,’ ré:tee‘name’ and rekút:tekut ‘neck’ (Hattori and Chiri 1960).
Vovin (1993: 16-18) reconstructs Proto Ainu *dwhen Common Ainu [r-] corresponds to Nairo [t-], andthen his reconstructed form for “wind” is *dEEra HLL.
Vovin (ibid.: 17) mentioned that until more Nairo data
is published this point in his reconstruction cannot be
definitely proven, since only nine words with [r-]correspond to Nairo [t] among the 200-word list basedon Swadesh’s list. Moreover, Kindaichi (1931: 10-11)
described that investigators often mistake retara for
detara because this is an intermediate sound between/t/ and /d/ and /r/. Chiri (1942: 462) explained that in
Sakhalin, the onset /r-/ of the first syllable is confusedwith /t-/ (or /d-/).
Form A-3, réra, appears in the Hokkaido dialects,
including the non-accentual rera in the dialects ofBihoro, Kushiro, Samani, and Shizunai. In the
Shumshu dialect of the northern Kurils, the terms
re’ra and reara are reported by Torii (1903: 131, 162).
Here, they are also included in Form A-3, since it isuncertain whether the first syllable was a long vowel
or not.
The meaning of “the wind blows” is expressed by

Keywords: wind, blow, typhoon, stormy
Map 2. “(Wind) Blow” in Ainu
A. ás/as “stand”
B. án/an “exist”
C. rúy “strong”
D. yúpke “strong”

4Map 1. “Wind” in Ainu
A. rera type
A-1. reeraA-2. teera
A-3. réra/rera(Mika Fukazawa)

5

“Wind” in Mongolic and TurkicD) xat type
Tuvan 8 has the word xat for “wind.” It comesfrom kad, which originally meant “snowstorm” inTurkic and may possibly be related to Tungusic ədin,xədun, etc.

1. Mongolic
The word forms representing “wind” (in the genericsense) in Mongolic can be divided into the following
two types:E) rüzgar type9
Turkish 10 rüzgâr and Gagauz rüzgär are from
Persian.

A) kei typeThis is the original word for “wind” in Mongolic,1
but in many modern languages, it has undergone asemantic change and means “air, gas.” The original
meaning is retained in such peripheral languages as
Dagur (xəin), Dongxiang (kəi), Bonan (ki) andMonguor (kī 2 ) in China and Moghol (kɛi) in
Afghanistan.

F) šamal type11
An Arabic loanword is used in Uighur (šamal) andUzbek12 (šamol).
G) külək type
Azeri has the form külək, a word of unknown origin.

B) salkïn type
3. Geographical Distribution

The modern Mongolic languages other than the ones
mentioned above have cognates of salkïn for “wind.”
The Old Turkic had salkïm3 “cold,” which survives
in the northeastern group as saikïn “cool, cold
(weather); a violent (cold) wind.”4 The Mongolicword salkïn could be a loanword from Turkic. The
word appears as salix (Mongol), salɣən 5 (Shira
Yughur), halxin (Buriad: Khori), xalxʲ (Buriad: Old
Barga), etc.

The map shows that in the Mongolic languages the
kei-type forms are only distributed in someperipheral regions such as Hēilóngjiāng and Gānsù
Provinces in China and western Afghanistan, while
the salkïn-type forms are shared by the languages in
the central area. From this distribution pattern, we
could assume that kei is the older word and was
replaced by the newer one, salkin, in the central partof the Mongolic-speaking area, and remained only
on the eastern, southern and western edges. This
interpretation matches the linguistic data recorded inold documents.

2. Turkic
The word forms representing “wind (in the genericsense)” in Turkic can be divided into the following
seven types:

In the Turkic languages, jel and its cognates arewidespread. The other forms are used in peripheral
areas: The word tïal is used in northern Siberia; theword salkïn in southern Siberia; word of Arabic
origin in Central Asia and a Persian loanword and aword of unknown origin in the Near East. This
distribution pattern could tell us that kei is the oldest
word for “wind” in Turkic.
(Yoshio Saitô)A) jel typeThe word forms of this category are jel (Salar, Sarïg
Yughur, Turkmen, Nogay, Crimean Tatar 6 ), jel’
(Karaim), jǟl (Khalaj); ǰel (Kazakh, Kyrghyz,
Karakalpak 7 , Karachai-Balkar), ǰil (Tatar); čel(Chulym); and śil (Chuvash).
B) tïal type

8

Sakha and Dolgan have the form tïal, which isrelated to the word dawïl “storm, strong wind” insuch languages as Tatar, Kazakh, Nogay, etc.

Tuvan also has the Mongolic-originated word salgïn, whichmeans “weak wind or breeze.”Tuvan in Burqin County in

Xīnjiāng has boran “strong wind”; χarazalɣan “spring wind”;
salɣan “breeze”; and ɢazərɢə “whirlwind.”C) salkïn type
Altai has salkïn. This word is related to the Old
Turkic salkïm “cold” mentioned above.

9
10

Persian ‫ رزﮔار‬rūzgār.

Turkish has Turkic-originated jel and Persian-originated rüzgâr.

The former word with a meaning of “weak wind” is literary instyle, while the latter, which means “wind in the generic sense,” is1frequently used in daily life.

The form kei appears in the Yüan-chao Mi-shi (元朝秘史) andthe Hua-yi Yi-yü (華夷譯語).

112

Sūn (1990) also lists salkī.

and dry wind with dust from the north or northwest in Iraq, Iran,3

The Old Turkic form of the word ends in a bilabial nasal -m.

and the Arabian Peninsula.”

4

Clauson (1972).

125

Sūn (1990) also lists kī.

The former word, which means “strong wind,” is literary in style,

6

Crimean Tatar also has the Persian word ruzgâr.

while the latter one, which means “wind in the generic sense,” is7

Karakalpak also has the Arabic word samal.

most commonly used in daily life.

6

Arabic ‫ "ﺷﻤ"ﻞ‬šamal.

This word in Modern Arabic means “hotUzbek has Turkic-originated jel and Arabic-originated šamol.

“Wind” in Mongolic“Wind” in Turkic

7

“Wind” in Sinitic

Some southern dialects, which possess plosives for
dentilabials, also often possess fricatives asallomorphs (e.g., hun / pun in Xiamen 厦門 (table 1)).
This situation may imply that these fricatives are notformed through inner changes of the phonologicalsystem but through contact with other dialects,
especially northern dialects. The confusion between fand h / x may also be related to such a situation.
The distribution of the nucleus shows relatively
clear opposition between the north and south areas. In
the north area, unrounded vowels such as ə and a are
distributed, whereas rounded vowel such as u and oare distributed in the south (Map. 2. Cao 2008:195).
In Hunan area, nasal codas –ŋ are systematicallyweakened and frequently merged with –n,occasionally droped out (Cao 2008:173). Therefore
forms like fən,, fəɯN, pɛ appear in these area (Map. 3).

1. Classification of word forms
As mentioned in Endo (2013), all forms
representing “wind” in Sinitic can be traced back to
Middle Chinese (MC) pjuŋ (Schussler (2007:238) 風),and have just one syllable; therefore, although theirdistribution is quite simple, we still classified theminto three subtypes, based on initial consonants.
A-1 P type (initial consonant is p or ph)piuŋ, piɔŋ, pyoŋ, pɔŋ, phoŋ, pen, pɛ, etc.
A-2 F type (initial consonant is f or ɸ)fəŋ, foŋ, fɔŋ, faŋ , fən, fəɯN, fəɯ, fe, etc.
A-3 H type (initial consonant is h or x)
huŋ, huaŋ, hoŋ, hɔŋ, həŋ, xən, xəŋ, xəN, xoŋ, etc.
2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
The A-1 maintains the bilabial plosive onset p-,
which corresponds with the MC form. Their
distributions are relatively scarce, and found only inthe south east area (e.g., Fujian, Huna, or Guangdong).
Based on the initial consonant, the A-1 type can besaid to be the oldest form; however, some A-1 typeforms have also undergone new changes, (e.g., coda -ŋchanged into -n or vowel in pɛ (Jiangyong) and pen(Jianghua)).The A-2 forms, including the standard
Chinese fəŋ, are distributed most widely in the wholeof China. The A-3 forms are mainly distributed in thesouth east area. In the south area, h-/x- and f- tend to
be confused or merged (see table 1); A-3, reflecting
this tendency, would be the newest type.
轟2

ɣən
痕1

xuən
婚1

xuŋ

xən

xuən

fən

xəŋ

xən

xuən

xən

fən

xən

xən

fən

xan

xan

xuan

xan

ɣæN

xuan

hɔŋ

hɔŋ /
phaŋ

hun /
pun

hɔŋ

hun

hun

pjuŋ

phjwoŋ

pjun

xwæŋ

place

風1

蜂1

分1

北京

fəŋ

fəŋ

fən

合肥

fəŋ

fəŋ

長沙

xən

双峰
厦門

MC

Map 2. Nucleus

Table 1. Fricative onsets and nasal codas
Source: Beijing University(1989), MC sources1: Schussler(2007), MC sources 2: Guo(2010)
In the phonological system of Qieyun (A.D.601),
there were only plosives for labial onsets. However,some of these plosives had changed into fricatives
throughout the eighth century (dentilabialization). Thischange occurred under certain phonological conditions,for example, possessing high i glide followed by acentral or a back vowel (Chao1941: 224).

Map 3. Nasal coda
Keywords: North-South opposition, Dentilabialization(Kenji Yagi, Takashi Ueya, Fumiki Suzuki)

8Map 1. “Wind” in Sinitic

9Wind: Tibeto-Burman

HY type: PKC *hu(u)y (‘AIR / WIND’).
huùy, huiʔ33.
V type: Etymon is unclear, although PTB *woy(‘FART’), PKC *woyʔ⪤weyʔ (‘FART’).
khar33vu55, vī.
W type
W1: WrT etymon ’ur (‘NOISE / TO BE NOISY’).
’wu:r.
W2: Etymon unclear.
mu55wa53.
HB type: Type appears only in the Bisu language;
both ha and ban mean ‘wind’.
há bán, haŋ33 ban33.
PH type: Etymon unclear; type found only in Newar.
phae, phasa.
P type: Etymon unclear; type appears only in Bai
languages.
pi35, pĩ, pi35sɿ35, pi35sou55, etc.
TH type: Etymon unclear.
tho31ŋo31, ʷlu55tʰej55.
TS type: Etymon unclear.
tsuɛ̃, tɕyi33.
N typeN1: Etymon unclear.
mɤ13nɛ33, mu33ɳɯ33, mu33ȵu33, ɳɯ33, etc.
N2: The word initial is hn-; its etymon is unclear.
hnôoy, hnó-biá.
R type: Etymon unclear.
j!33, r!’gu, ʒa535gou53, etc.
PR type: Etymon unclear.
po13ʑy35, χp!r55ju33, xp!rju, xp!’rjuro, p!’rju,
p!rjixs, ɣp!rju, etc.
SR type: WrT bser bu (‘BREEZE’).
sʰar!, sʰ!r!, etc.

1. Classification of word forms
In Tibeto-Burman (TB), the classification of wordforms is based upon 560 languages and dialects.
According to our data, 24 word roots denote wind,
almost half of which are etyma of the proto-levelforms such as Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB; see
STEDT1), Proto-Kuki-Chin (PKC; see STEDT), andWritten Tibetan (WrT). A list of word forms appears
below:
L type
L1: PTB etymon *g-l!y (‘WIND’).
li, lai51, li55, le, me21li55, ɬa55, l̥ i55, mu33ɬɿ33,
m!21ɕi33, mu33hi33, me33xe33, li1, etc.
L2: Etymon unclear.
r!22la53, βl!, βlo’lo, ɦgl!, ɣle.
LU: WrT etymon rlung (‘BREEZE / WIND / AIR’).
lu1, lo35, hloŋ, rluŋ, wloŋ, luʔpo, lūŋ, glung, ɬuŋspo,ʱlũ, ʁloŋ, ʰlʉ̃, ʰlu:, lõ, etc.
LH: WrT etymon lhag(s) pa (‘COLD WIND’).
ɦa13pa53, ɬao55, ̄hlak pa, l̥ aʔka, l̥ a ka, hɛ k!, ha ka,
ha ɦ!, ɦa pa, haʕ pa, ʰl̥ ɔ̃, ɬo’pɘ, x!r33, l̥ !55p!22, etc.
K type: PTB etymon *g-l!y (‘WIND’).
khɔkhi, chi, moʁu, etc.
KL type: PTB etymon *g-l!y (‘WIND’); the etymon
seems to have become disyllabic in most forms ofthis type.
kʰ!22li44, kʰa22li53, qale, k’li, g!li, thlǐI, giliī, ʁa’l!,ʁar’t!, kʰa’li, qał’d!, etc.
M typeM1: PTB etymon *k/s-mut (‘BLOW (with mouth)’).
m!i, m!̲55m!̲33, mʉ31ji55, mu55mo13, mɤ55mɤ53,
mɛ̰, etc.
M2: Etymon unclear; type appears only in ŋ̩21mi55.
M3: This word root might be a cognate with mun in
Ganan and Kadu, and has only one example: muŋ in
Cak (Jingpho-Asakian).
B type: PTB *buŋ (‘WIND’); type is found mostly incompounds.
nam53bɯŋ53, n31puŋ33, nv̀ mbø̀ ng, nam31boŋ53,
nam31bɯn53, etc.

Along with the abovementioned
compound forms exist:

types,

two

TS+L1 typetsɔ31li55, ʥa31le55, ʧɔ31l̥ i55, ʨa21l̥ ɛ55, tsa21l̥ e55,etc.
L1+M1 type
Found only in two words: hu33me55 and hɔ33me55.
Any case in our data where the words contain morethan one morpheme is marked by ‘+’ in the legends.

1

Reconstructed etyma and their references are citedfrom STEDT Database (accessed 14 January 2017).
URL:http://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-cgi/rootcanal.pl10

Thado and Tiddim, and both are of KC.
The V group has only two data: one appearing inEastern Kayah Li (Karenic) near Loikaw in Myanmar,
the other is found in Khroskyabs or Lavrung(rGyalrongic).
The W1 type is scattered only in the southwestern
Tibet Autonomous Region.
The HB type is found in northern Laos andThailand.
The PH type has appeared only in Newar, around
Kathmandu.
P and its compound types, intensively observed in
Bai, are distributed mostly around Lijiang on themaps.
The TH type is observed in nDrapa and Lisu.
The TS type is shared in Bai, and its compoundtype, TS+L1, is observed in Hani, Akha Nukui in
Loloish languages, on the border of China and Laos.
The N1 type has been attested in seven Yi
languages and Anong (Nungic), while the N2 type isshared only in Falam Lai and Mara, both of which
belong to KC.
The R type is found mainly around the KL region.
The PR type is found in Pema in Tibetic languages,
adjacent to the KL region.
The SR type is shared in Tibetan dialects spoken
in the LU prominent area in northern Sichuan
Province.

2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
Notably, many of our data in TB contain amorpheme whose etymon is PTB *r-m!w (‘SKY /HEAVENS / CLOUDS’), and especially in the B
group, most etyma are PTB *g-nam (‘SUN / SKY’).
Throughout the data, the most striking feature in
TB is that PTB *g-l!y has been divided into threegroups: L1, K and KL. Unlike in the L1 and K
groups, in the KL group the etymon seems to havebecome disyllabic, as in g!li and kʰ!22li44. This
word root is found primarily in rGyalrongic languages
and is distributed around the northwestern area ofChengdu, Sichuan Province. This group shows great
diversity in its word forms.
Whereas the K group has few data in languages
such as Daai (KC) and Mindat Cho (KC), the L1
group, including the L1+ type, shows thesecond-largest distribution on the map, namely aroundsouthwestern China, northern VietNam and Laos, andwestern Myanmar near Yangon.
This groupprimarily appears in most of Yi (Loloish) and Burmish
languages and dialects.
The most widely spread group is the LU group, asattested in the Tibetosphere. From its westernmost
point around Srinagar, India, to its easternmost tip in
Lanzhou, China, the group is scattered along theHimalayas. The northernmost end is in Xining,
China, and the group ends at its southernmost point inLijiang, China.
By contrast, the LU+ group,
including at least one morpheme added to the LU-typeroot, appears only around northwestern Sichuan andYunnan Provinces.
Conversely, the LH group shared among Tibetic
languages is scattered about Lhasa and a few areas
adjacent to KL and LU prominent zones.
M1 appears mostly in Qiangic languages such as
Munya, Guiqiong and Northern Prinmi, and its
compound form, L1+M1, appears only in two Loloish
languages spoken in Laos, Khongsat and Laoseng.
Observed in Nungic and Jingpho languages, the B
type is distributed around the border of China and
Myanmar. The etymon PTB *buŋ is a cognate with*pi̯ ŭm/pi̯ ung of Old and Middle Chinese, *p(r)jɨ/um of
Old Chinese, and also fēng of Modern Chinese.
As mentioned earlier, the first syllable found in
most cases in this group, for example, nam53@bɯŋ53
in Dulong, is the etymon PTB *g-nam (‘SUN / SKY’).
The HY type, observed in two places near the
Indo-Myanmar border, has only two instances in

3. Conclusion
For the word wind in Tibeto-Burman languages,
560 data have been collected, and 24 roots found.
Among them, the M1 type shows a semantic change
by which a root originally referring to BLOW hascome to mean WIND. It is also noteworthy that the
L1, K and KL types originate from PTB *g-nam anddemonstrate great diversity in their actual word forms.
Our next challenge is to consider chronologicalorder among TB languages.

Keywords: Tibeto-Burman, compound(Kazue Iwasa, H. Suzuki, K. Kurabe, S. Ebihara,
S. Shirai, I. Matsuse)

11Map 1: Wind in Tibeto-Burman, the whole area
Legends:

N.B. The mark ‘+’ in the legends means an existence of other morphemes.

12Map 2: Wind in Tibeto-Burman, enlarged.
N.B. All the symbols are identical to those displayed in the legends of the previous
page.

13

“Wind” in Hmong-Mien

D: zəm2

1. Classification of word forms
The word forms of “wind” in Hmong-Mien are derived
from two major etyma reconstructed as *N-cæwH and*poŋC in Ratliff (2010). The former etymon isreconstructed at the stage of Proto-Hmong-Mien, and thelatter etymon at the stage of Proto-Hmongic. Although thereconstruction for the former etymon might induce someargument, especially on the reconstruction of a hyphenatedelement *N-, the cognacy among the forms subsumed
under *N-cæwH has been assumed by most scholars (*Nin Ratliff’s reconstruction causes the initial consonants of
the root syllables voiced in Mienic, but simply drops in
Hmongic without exerting a voicing effect. *H at the endof the form represents a proto-segment deriving Tone C in
the later development). The reflexes of the latter etymon*poŋC are observed only in a limited number of Hmongic
lects. Many other Hmongic lects also have the reflex of this
etymon with a different meaning: “air, smell.” One
Hmongic lect shows a compound form comprising thereflexes of the two etyma: poŋ5 ʨi5 (Tone 5 is one of theregular reflexes from Tone C of the proto-stage. Note that
this form has a voiceless initial consonant /ʨ/ since the lect
belongs to Hmongic). One Hmongic lect has a form
deriving from a distinct etymon: zəm2.
Based on the above-mentioned comparative evidence,
we can classify the forms for “wind” into four types: A(forms deriving from *N-cæwH), B (forms deriving from*poŋC), C (poŋ5 ʨi5, compound form of A and B), and D(zəm2). Type A can be further divided into four subtypes.
A1 is observed in Hmongic lects, indicating a voicelessinitial. A2 is observed in Mienic, indicating a voiced initial.
A3 is a complex form with an element aŋ1 before a formof Type A1 ʨi5 (aŋ1 might be related to the word
designating “water”). A4 is a form observed in two lects of
Ho-ne. It has been treated by some scholars as a reflex of
the Type A etymon with an irregularity in tone (theexpected tone is Tone 5, and not Tone 1).

2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
Most lects, regardless of genetic subgrouping, Hmongic
or Mienic, indicate a reflex belonging to Type A. This factsuggests that the Type A is the original form for “wind” inHmong-Mien.
Turning to the forms for Type B, which is distributed in
the central part of Guizhou, we observed an interesting fact.
Two Hmongic lects distributed in Guizhou, Yanghao, andGaozhai, which have one of the Type A forms for “wind,”use forms belonging to Type B for “air, smell” (see Table
1. The form poŋ5 in Yanghao is from Office of Miao-Yao
Research Lexicon). We can also note that one of the TypeB lects, Datang, uses the same form for both of the twomeanings. These facts suggest that a semantic extension
includes not only “air, smell” but also “wind,” that is, notonly “body of air” but “blow of air” has occurred in theType B lects distributed in the central part of Guizhou. The
Type C form poŋ5 ʨi5 for “wind” observed in Taijiang canbe understood in a similar way. The form shows a
combination of Type B poŋ5 and Type A ʨi5. Taijiang alsouses a Type B form poŋ5 for “air.” Thus, the formation ofthis compound can be explained as follows: in Taijiang asimilar semantic extension has occurred in poŋ5, but stillpreserves the original element ʨi5 for distinction. The
historical relation between Type B and Type C, however, is
yet to be investigated.
Table 1
Yanghao
Jiwei
Dananshan
GaozhaiGundong
Taijiang
DatangZongdi

A: forms from *N-cæwHA1: ʨi5
A2: dzjau5
A3: aŋ1 ʨi5
A4: ki1

WIND
ʨen5
ci5
ʨua5
ʨiC
ɔ͂1 ʨi5poŋ5 ʨi5paŋ5paŋ5AIR, SMELL
poŋ5təA poŋC
poŋ5
paŋ5(Yoshihisa Taguchi)

B: forms from *poŋC
C: poŋ5 ʨi5 (compound form of A and B)

14

"Wind" in Hmong-Mien
A: forms from *N-cæwHA1: ʨi5
A2: dzjau5
A3: aŋ1 ʨi5
A4: ki1
B: forms from *poŋC
C: poŋ5 ʨi5 (compound form of A and B)
D: zəm2

15

Wind: Tai-Kadai

the /r/ type sounds in Zhuang, Papers from theThird International Conference on Asian
Geolinguistics (Studies in Asian Geolinguistics,
Monograph Series No. 1), 46-71.
Li, Fang Kuei. 1977. A Handbook of Comparative Tai.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Yuan, J. 1963. Zhuangyu / r / de Fangyin Duiying[Sound Correspondences of / r / among the Zhuang
Dialects]. Yuyanxue Luncong, 5:187-218; also
In: Wang, F. & Sun H. eds. 2010. Yuan Jiahua
Wenxuan [Selected Works of Yuan Jiahua].
155-178. Beijing: Beijing University Press. [inChinese](Mitsuaki ENDO)

1. Classification of word forms
The major type A ends with the coda -m or -ng(A-4) and all subtypes are to be treated as descendants
from the same proto form. Minor types B and C arefound in Hlai in the Hainan island.
A-1 l-m typeA-2 r-m typeA-3 z-m typeA-4 z-ng type
A-5 j-m typeA-6 ð-m typeA-7 ɣ-m type
A-8 hj-m type
B vo:t typeC viu type
2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
The proto Tai form for “wind” is reconstructed as*dlu̯om A by Li (1977:125, 273). Yuan (1963)
exhaustively studied / r /-type sounds among Zhuang
dialects, and he postulated the proto initial of thissound class as *r-.
All subtypes A-1 to A-8 are due to the regularsound change in each place. Endo (2016) drew maps
for all 98 example words of this / r /-type category
given in Yuan (1963) and gave hypotheses as follows(p.52):
A-2 r-m type is the oldest form;
A-7 ɣ-m type is the newest form;
A-8 hj-m type was derived from A-2 r- type.
Other types should be the results of individualchanges in each place. A-4 z-ng type came about by
the change of coda from A-3 z-m type.
Endo (2014) discussed the problem of therelationship of this Tai-Kadai form *dlu̯om (A) withother eastern Asian languages, like Chinese, Korean,
the Bai language of Lolo-Burmese, and Taiwan
Austronesian.
Bibliography
Chen, Xiaoling. 2011. Dongtaiyu Hexinci Yanjiu[Studies in Basic Vocabulary in Tai-Kadai].
Chengdu: Bashu Shushe. [in Chinese]Endo, Mitsuaki. 2014. The Words for "Wind" in the
Eastern Asian Languages. Keizai Kenkyu, 6:
117-129.
Endo, Mitsuaki. 2016. Geographical Distribution of

16

A-1
A-2
A-3
A-4
A-5
A-6
A-7
A-8
B
C

17

Wind: Austroasiatic Languages
1. Classification of word forms
The word forms for “wind” in Austroasiatic can
be classified into 9 categories as follows:A) CjVˀl type
A-1: Cjaal < *kyaal (Shorto, 2006, p.462)
kəjaal (Katuic: Bru, Kui, Souei)
caːl (Bahnaric: Mnong, Sre, Stieng)ca (Monic: Mon), etc.
A-2: Cjo < *k-jɔːʔ (Ferlus, 1997)kajəːw (Bahnaric: Brao [Laveh])
kjew (Bahnaric: Nyaheun)kajɔ̰ ́ ː (Vietic: Chứt [Rục])kojo (Munda: Juang, Kharia)
hojo (Munda: Birhor, Ho, Mundari), etc.
A-3: hɔj typehɔe (Munda: Santali)hɔj (Munda: Kol, Mahali, Santali), etc.
B) kur type < *[ ]kuur (Shorto, 2006, p.418, 421)
gur (Palaungic: Kentung-wa, Son)kɯ́l (Palaungic: Samatou)kau (Palaungic: Lawa [Bo Luang], Lawa [MaeSariang]), etc.
C) bVwV type < *by[əw]h for ‘storm’. (Shorto, 2006,
p.473)
brwaʔ (Aslian: Jahai)pɛwaʔ, bɛwaʔ (Aslian: Kensiu, Tonga) , etc.
D) ɲ~ŋin type < related to “*haŋin” type inAustronesian? (Utsumi 2017)ŋin (Katuic: Katu [phuong], Ngeq [Kriang])ɲin (Katuic: Ong), etc.
E) hiiw type < *hiiw; *hiəw for ‘to drift’. (Shorto,
2006, p.479)
híəl (Monic: Nyah Kur [Huai Khrai, Northern])híəl~híəw (Monic: Nyah Kur [Huai Khrai,
Northern])F) -ma type
ʔmaːʔ, (Palaungic: Lamet [Nkris])θamáʔ (Palaungic: Hu)
samà (Palaungic: U), etc.
G) has type <*ʔuh; *ʔa[ ]h; (*ʔuh ʔuh >?) *huh (&*huuh?); *huəh; *ha[ ]h for ‘to blow’. (Shorto, 2006,
p.499)
hãs (Nicobaric: Nancowry)hãːʃ (Nicobaric: Nancowry)H) pəs type <*puh; (*puh-s >) *puus for ‘to blow’.
(Shorto, 2006, p.514)pəs (Aslian: Semai [II])Other forms: daren (Aslian: Jahai), nhəm (Bahnaric:
Sre [Koho]), ʔadiiʔ, ʔadiːʔ (Katuic: Katu), lʔer ʔer, lʔer
l'er (Khasic: Khasi), qə31təŋ55 (Mangic: Bolyu), kufət,
kum-fəː-tə (Nicobaric: Car), pɔbɔnɔ, pobono (Munda:
Juang) < पवन (pavana) in Sanskrit …
2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
The forms of A) CjVˀl type are widely seen
across all Austroasiatic languages, so it is quite likelythat this is the oldest form. About this type, we canassume the historical order of development as follows:
According to Shorto (2006), the proto-form for‘wind’ in Mon-Khmer is *kyaal, while Ferlus (1997)shows that the proto-form for ‘wind’ in Viet-Muong is*k-jɔːʔ. Shorto (2006) also points out the relationshipbetween these two forms, as we can see some words
like jaaˀj, jaːˀj, kʰəjaːˀj, ksaˀl appear in Chong, theWestern Pearic language. Therefore, it is quite likelythat the ending *-ˀl can be reconstructed for type A. A1 forms are the result of losing the final -ʔ, while A-2
forms are the result of losing the final -l. The Mon
form, ca, is the result of a further loss in the final -l in
the next stage, while the rising tone in Vietic comesfrom the final -ʔ. The A-3 type of Munda might comefrom the A-2 form (Munda) following the loss of the
final vowel, hojo > hɔj, and the loss of the consonant,j, between vowels hojo > hɔe
The type E hiiw can be related to Type C viu of
Tai-kadai in Hainan Island (Endo 2017).
References:
SEAlang Mon-Khmer Languages Project
http://sealang.net/monkhmer/index.htm
SEAlang Munda Languages Project
http://sealang.net/munda/index.htm
Endo, Mitsuaki (2017), “Wind: Tai-Kadai,” Studies in
Asian Geolinguistics IV
Ferlus, Michel (1991, 1997 modified version)“Vocalisme du Proto Viet-Muong,” Paper to be
circulated at the 24th International Conference on
Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics
Shorto, Harry L. (2006), A Mon-Khmer Comparative
Dictionary, Edited by Paul J. Sidwell, Doug
Cooper, and Christian Bauer, Canberra: Australian
National University
Utsumi, Atsuko (2017), “WIND: Austronesianlanguages,” Studies in Asian Geolinguistics IV
Keywords: wind, Austroasiatic(KONDO Mika)

18

“Wind” in AustroasiaticA)

CjVˀl type

A-1: Cjaal
A-2: Cjo
A-3: hɔj

B)
C)
D)
E)

kur type
bVwV typeɲ~ŋin typehiiw typeF) -ma typeG) has typeH) p s type19

WIND: Austronesian languages

C-2. Without the first syllable: ðaŋi, laŋi, lai, lɔŋi,
yagila, yau, yaŋiC-3. Beginning with /nVmV/ or /mV/ (V means avowel) followed by the reflection of *haŋin:nəmataŋi, nəmətaŋ, mataŋi, mataʔi
D. Beginning with the consonant /d/D-1. Two or three syllables: dupoto, doros, dɔrɔs
D-2. One syllable only: dan, dān
E. Beginning with /m/: manis, moda, mu, miri, mīri,morɛ
F. Beginning with a palatal or velar nasal: ŋalu, ŋoluʔ,ņayeŋoG. Having /r/ or /s/ as the onset of the second syllable:nuri, nus, ʔiru, ōru
H. Beginning with /k/ and having an alveolar
consonant as the conset of the second syllable: kayā,kʷadɛ
I. Other forms: n-ean, noɸə, oasa, siyer, tim, togawa,tokerau, ɤivusu, eip, aneku

1. Classification of word forms
The word form for “wind” varies a great deal. In
Proto Austronesian vocabulary, there are many words
related to “wind”: general term for wind (*bali), andwinds from four cardinal directions. As a result,many different forms are found in present languages.
it is assumed to have can be categorized into four maingroups. Type A forms start with the sound /p/, but
the rest is not very similar with each other, and thisgrouping is only for convenience. Forms that belong
to type B and C, on the other hand, are similar andclearly the reflections of proto-form: Proto
Austronesian
(PAN)
*bali
and
Proto
Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) *haŋin respectively.
Type B consists of /b/ as the first consonant and /l/ or/r/ as the onset of the second syllable. Some forms ofType C-1 retain the first consonant /h/ or /s/ (the twophones are easily changeable from each other inAustronesian languages), but most forms has lost it.
The onset of the second syllable is mostly /ŋ/, butsometimes changed into /n/. Type C-2 forms havelost /h/ and /ŋ/, beginning with /l/, /y/ or /ð/ (/l/ haschanged into /y/ as a result of historical innovation insome languages) . Type C-3 has the prefix *ma(stative prefix) or *na- (stative or past prefix) before
the reflection of *haŋin. Type D groups together theforms beginning with /d/ sound. D-1 has more than
one syllable whereas D-2 has only one. Type E
forms begin with /m/ and have /r/ as the onset of thesecond syllable, but one form, mu, is included
although it has no /r/ since it is assumed to have lost it
as an innovation. Type F forms begins with a palatalor velar nasal and has /l/ as the onset of the secondsyllable. Type G groups together forms that have /r/as the onset of the second syllable. Type H is just alabelt to group together micellaneous forms that havea little in common among them.

2. Geographical distribution
2-1. Formosan languages: Type A and B are found.
2-2. Philippines and Kalimantan: Various forms thatbelong Type B, C-1, D-1 and G are found.
2-3. Sulawesi, Maluku and West Papua New Guinea:
Various forms that are categorized into Type A, C-1,
D-1, E, and F are found. The forms that do notbelong to any of the groups A-F, which groups
together similar forms, are also found.
2-4. Sumatra and Jawa: Predominantly type C is found,and also one instance of type B.
2-5. East Papua New Guinea: Type C-2, E and G arefound. In addition, miscellaneous forms which aregrouped into type I for convenience are found, too.
2-6. Oceanic languages: Type C-3, D-2, F and H, arefound, but C-3 and F seem to be most common.
3. Word Forms for “wind”
In Austronesian languages, winds from four
cardinal directions have different lexicons.
In
addition, general term for “wind”, “gentle wind”,“stormy wind” and so on are found. This explains
why even in a small area has various forms for “wind”
in the present languages. Only in Sumatra and Jawa
do we find consistency (predominantly type C-1).

A. Beginning with the consonant /p/ : pagpag, porepe,poiri
B. The onset of the first syllable is /b/ and the onset ofthe second syllable is /l/, /r/, or /y/. balbāli, baliyu,
baligbōg, buru

C. “*haŋin” typeC-1. With the first syllable containing /ha/ /sa/ or/a/: hāŋin, saŋin, alaŋ, alogo, ayɔŋ, aŋ, aŋiŋ,aŋŋiŋ, aŋin, aŋɛn, te aŋ, āŋ, ani-n, aŋin, anin

References: Tryon, Darrell T. (eds.) 1995.
Comparative Austronesian Dictionary. Berlin and
New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

20

Blust, Robert and Stephan Trussel. Work in progress,
revision 7/2/2015 (Viewed 03/11/2016).
The
Austronesian Comparative Dictionary web edition.

http://www.trussel2.com/ACD/introduction.htm(Atsuko Utsumi)

pagpag, porepe, poiribalbāli, baliyu, baligbōg, buru

Map 1: Taiwan and the Philippineshāŋin, saŋin, alaŋ, alogo, ayɔŋ, aŋ, aŋiŋ, aŋŋiŋ, aŋin,aŋɛn, te aŋ, āŋ, ani-n, aŋin, aninðaŋi, laŋi, lai, lɔŋi, yagila, yau, yaŋinəmataŋi, nəmətaŋ, mataŋi, mataʔi
dupoto, doros, dɔrɔs: dan, dānmanis, moda, mu, miri, mīri, morɛŋalu, ŋoluʔ, ņayeŋo
nuri, nus, ʔiru, ōrukayā, kʷadɛ
n-ean, noɸə, oasa, siyer, tim, togawa, tokerau, ɤivusu,
eip, aneku

Map 2: Indonesia

Map 3: Papua New Guinea and Pacific21वात ास ‘wind-storm’, vātōdgūraवातौ गूर ‘whirlwind’, vātara वातर ‘windy’, vātālī
वाताल ‘whirlwind’, vāsa वास ‘perfume’, and vāniवा न ‘perfume’, which are derived from the verbal
root √vā वा ‘to blow’. Forms of this type are located

Wind: South Asia (IE (Aryan, Iranian,Nuristani),
Burushaski)

Dravidian,vātatrāsaAndamanese,

1. Classification of word forms
In this map, there are five major categories of wordforms – √vā, gāḷi, pavana, hawāʔ, and vali – and fourminor categories.

all over the Indian subcontinent, within Aryan,
Iranian, Nuristani, and southern Dravidian languages(see Map 2).
While forms of the latter gāḷi type are only
observed in the southern half of India, this type is
employed by southern Dravidian languages (see Map
3). The forms of this type are derived from theDravidian word something like *gāḷi. The SouthCentral Dravidian languages prefer *vali type forms,
and the Northern Dravidians clearly use *takā groupwords. I couldn’t find out the original forms andmeanings of these types, but surely each of themmeans ‘wind’, since they show complementary
distribution from the areal viewpoint.
The third major type, pavana, derived from theverbal root √pū पू ‘to make pure, to winnow’, can beseen only in Aryan languages. The distribution is,
however, very wide, from Nepal and Pakistan in thenorth to Sri Lanka in the south. And their forms do
not vary much, only in a narrow width.
The hawāʔ type has been observed in the northernpart of Aryan languages’ area and in many Iranianareas. This word was originally borrowed from
Arabic, hawāʔ ‫‘ ھﻮاء‬wind’ derived from the root hw-y ‫‘ ھﻮى‬to blow, to love’. That is why the
distribution of this type considerably overlaps withthe area of Islamic dominance.
Oṣ is a minor type of Aryan, in particular of theso-called Dardic language group (a subgroup of theNorthwestern Aryan). The origin of this type isunclear, or it might be derived from Sanskrituṣṇavāta उ णवात ‘hot-wind’. Dhamana is used in
Nuristan regardless of language families, near thewest of the oṣ type. Sanskrit word dhamana धमनmeans ‘blow’.
The suḷan type is seen in Sri Lanka, Sinhalese, andVedda. I have not found a clue to the origin.
There are many types for ‘wind’ here. Taking abroad view of the situation, we can find that eachlanguage family each has an original word for ‘wind’,and so they don’t borrow any form from anotherfamily. Burushaski also has the only original form,and Andamanese languages have a few types even
within themselves.
(YOSHIOKA Noboru)

A. √vā: [vātá]: vāṭa, vāṭai, vāyu, wāy, vai, vāv, wāw,vāu, wāu, vā, vaha, gwāth, gwāt, bot, bād, bad,bod, bāy, bāyu, bāỵu, bayáu, bai, bāo, bāu, bauā,baúa, bau, bāā, bā, ba; [+dhmāna]: bấdum,wādana (cf. G. dhamana group), [+trāsa]: batās,
bātās, batāh, basāt, [+udgūra]: bagur, bagər,wʌga; [vātara]: bayāri, bālé, vāryɔ, bā́ lā, vārẽ,bayālo, vārā, orẽ, vāṟyālā, bhāla, balay, bālái;[vātālī]: bāl; [vāsa]: wā́ gan, bās; [vāni]: bāni
B. gāḷi: gāḷi, ghāḷi, gāli, ga·ḷi, gāḷ, gāḍupu, kāl, kāṟṟu,ka·tī, ka·ṯ; [+vali]: garuvali, karuvali (cf. E. vali)
C. pavana: pavan, pawan, paban, pavaṇ, pauṇ, pɔṇ,pɔ̈̄ṇ
D. hawāʔ: hawā, hawā́ , havā, həwā, hʌwa, hāwā,
hawāh, ʌwa, have
E. vali: valli, vallu, vaḷi, val, vilu, vliu, waṛī, vīvali
F. oṣ: óoṣi, oš, uš, ūši, hāši
G. dhamana: dhamā́ n, dhʌmu, damṹ, domṍ, damu,dəma, dimíH. takā: tākā, táke, tahōI. suḷan: suḷan, huḷan, hulampojja
J. others: āli; nala; borṭɛrcek, bɔːr; jʌkʌṛ; gaán;eŋgáin; maru; páte, pāūtāū, tótāūté; sĩrʌ; tiṣ;uyir; ūtai; viṇṭu; wulanga-da, óluí; şamol;
hadimʌn
2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
The lexical forms representing the word ‘wind’
have quite diverse origins. They can be classified
into A) √vā type, B) gāḷi, C) pavana, D) hawāʔ, E)
vali, F) oṣ, G) dhamana, H) takā, I) suḷan, and J)
others.
The most major types are √vā and gāḷi.
The former can be verified in Sanskrit vātá वात‘wind’, vātadhmāna वात मान ‘wind-blow’,22Map 1. ‘Wind’ in South Asia

Map 2. √vā and dhamana types

Map 3. Dravidian types

23

Wind: Semitic languages

These forms in Hebrew and Syriac have alsomeaning “soul, spirit” and Arabic also has ruːħ “soul,spirit”.
B-2. r-y-ħ typeriːħ (‫ )رﯾﺢ‬is Arabic form of Classical, North Israel,
Najd in Saudi, UAE, San’a and Aden in Yemen, Tunis,

1. Classification of word forms
The word forms of “wind” are classified as follows.
A. n-f-s typenafaːs, näfas, əmfas

Alger, Rabat and Casablanca in Morocco. riː(h) in
Borno shuwa (Nigeria) and ri in Njamena (Chad) are
the result of drop of ħ. riħa of Ma’alūla Aramaic(Syria) is the exceptional case for Aramaic. This may
be borrowed from Arabic.

B. r-w-ħ typeB-1. r-ħ, ruːħa, ruha, ruːaħ, rehwa
B-2. riːħ, riħ, riħa, riː(h), ri
C. hawa typehawaː, hawa, xava, hwō

C. hawa typeThe original meaning of the form hawa (‫ )هﻮاء‬isD. the others“air”. This form is found in Egypt and the Eastern
Arab, such as Damascus and Aleppo (Syria), Palestine,
Lebanon, Mardin (Turky), Baghdad (Iraq), Kuwait andxava in Cypriot. Note that hwō of Ma’lūla is borrowed
from Arabic.

h(i)yέ, wälwäl, lobú
E. aḍu typeaḍu, aḍo, aṭuF. ṯʔw typeṯʔw, tēu

D. Other forms
Other forms are h(i)yέ in Jibbali (South Arabian) andG. ʃaːruin Oman, wälwäl in Tigre of Ethiopic, in Eritrea, duːfin Harari (Ethiopia), lobú in Ki-Nubi a creole in
Kenya are also found.

2. Geographical distribution and interpretation
A. n-f-s typeE. aḍu type

The n-f-s type is used in the Ethiopic. nafaːs (ነፋስ፡)in Ge’ez (the ancient Ethiopian), nāfas (ነፋስ፡) in
Amharic (an official language of Ethiopia), nāfas in
Tigrinya spoken in Eritrea. əmfas in Chaha spoken inaḍu type is Berber form: aḍu in Kabyle (Algeria)
and Wargla (Algeria), aḍo in Ghadamsi, aṭu in Jebel
Nefusa (Libya).

the Gurage Zone in central Ethiopia, əm is a result ofplace assimilation of n to the f.
This consonantal root is shared with the word
‘soul’: napištu () in Akkadian, n-p-š) in Ugaritic, nepeš (‫ ) ֶנ ֶפשׁ‬in Hebrew, nafs((ነፍስ፡) in Ge’ez, nəfsέt in Jibbali, nafs (‫ )ﻧﻔﺲ‬in Arabic.

F. ṯʔw typeṯʔw (¶») in the ancient Egypt, tēu (thu) in the
Coptic.
G. ʃaːru
The Akkadian (spoken in ancient Mesopotamia)
the ideogram of Sumerianim)form ʃaːru (is the oldest evidence in Semitic. But this consonantalroot is not shared with the other Semitic languages.

B. r-w-ħ typeB-1. r-w-ħ sub typeThis type is distributed in Mesopotamia and Syria.
ruːaħ (‫רוּח‬ַ ) in Biblical [ɾuːəħ] and Modern Hebrew(Youichi Nagato)[ɾuəχ]). rehwa in the Modern Manda (spoken in Iraq
and Iran).
The oldest evidence is the form r-ħ (¡) of
Ugaritic (in Syria in 13-14 century B.C.). Some other
old Semitic languages have r-w-ħ type forms. ruːħaː( ܳ ‫ ) ܽܪܘ‬in Syriac (2-7th century A.D.) with the definite
article -aː. ruha in the Mandaic (the Eastern Aramaic).

24

25

Words for “Wind” in Asian Languages:
A Brief Overview

interpretations can be applied to the distribution of
the words.
There are words used in a vast area acrosslanguage families, but if we look at Asian languages
as a whole, we see more diversity than unity.

1. Introduction
The air moves everywhere on the earth and every
language has a word for the natural perceptible
current of air.1

3. Etymology
A movement of air, i.e. wind, can be perceived
directly on the skin, but its existence is also
recognized through smell conveyed by it, noise madeby it, visual perception of wind-blown objects, andso on. Therefore, the words for “wind” in several
languages are derived from a word meaning “toblow,” etc.: Tibeto-Burman *k/s-mut “to blow”
and ’ur “noise, to be noisy”; Hmong-Mien *po!C“air; smell”; South Asian !p" “to make pure; towinnow.”

2. Word Forms
The word forms for “wind” in Asia vary greatly.
The geographical distribution of the dominant types
of words in each language family or
linguistic/cultural area schematically shown in
Figure 1 gives a rough idea about the diversity.
Some languages / language families have
only one type of word for “wind”: la in Nivkh2;
param in Korean; pju! 3 in Sinitic. Within eachlanguage family / linguistic area with more than one
type of word for “wind,” geolinguistic

Figure 1

Bibliography
Endo, Mitsuaki (2014) The Words for “Wind” in the
Eastern Asian Languages. Keizai Kenkyu, 6:
117-129.
Taguchi, Yoshihisa ed. (2017) Studies in Asian
Geolinguistics, No.5.
Tokyo University ofForeign Studies.
(Yoshio Saitô)

1Currents of air can be distinguished in terms of strength,
temperature, direction, and so on. They can be namedwith completely different words in language, but genericterms for “wind” is dealt with here. In English, forexample, “wind” is defined as “the perceptible natural
movement of the air,” while “breeze” is explained as “agentle wind.” The word “wind” is used in the definitionof the word “breeze,” and therefore it is a generic term.
2
Cf. Taguchi ed. (2017).
3
The Middle Chinese form.

26

A Geolinguistic Description of Terms for ‘Wind’ in Tibetic
Languages of the Eastern Tibetosphere
Hiroyuki Suzukiaa

IKOS, University of Oslo / National Museum of Ethnology

Abstract
This article attempts to describe a dialectal difference of the word ‘wind’ attested in around 230
dialects of the eastern Tibetic languages. The word ‘wind’ generally corresponds to Written
Tibetan (WrT) rlung or lhags pa. The former form has several phonetic differences, such as theinitial consonant. Other than them, there are also compound forms, which are also existent as
WrT forms.

1

Introduction

This article provides a detailed description of the geolinguistic analysis of the word forms for ‘wind’ in
the Tibetic languages spoken in the eastern Tibetosphere, which Iwasa et al. (this volume) did notdescribe in detail due to their focus on the whole of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic area. The geographicalscope of the eastern Tibetosphere follows the definition of Suzuki (2015).
The data used to create the linguistics maps at the end of this article only includes first-handmaterials collected by the author from 2003 to 2016. Because of this, as well as because of time
constraints on the part of the author, the data points are not equally distributed within this area, and thepoints on the map only reflect the current research situation. The present map contains 235 points.
The linguistic maps reflect so-called ‘regiolects’, i.e. dialects with regional differences. Sociolects,
which certainly exist in the given area, are not dealt with in this article.

2

Classification of word forms

This section provides a classification of word forms of ‘wind’ based on Written Tibetan (WrT) forms
and their various phonetic realisations. There are three principal types:(A) WrT rlung-type.
(B) WrT lhags pa-type.
(C) /sha rə/-type.
The A-type is attested much more widely than the B- and C-types. In addition, the A-type can beclassified into different subcategories based on its phonetic realisations and formation of compounds.
There are two sound correspondences /l/ and /j/ with a WrT radical letter l, however, this difference is
not applied for the classification provided here (see Suzuki 2009, 2016). Examples are as follows:1
A-typeA1a: monosyllabic form corresponding WrT rlung[ɦlɔ̃], [ɦloŋ], [ʁloŋ], [ɦlʉ̃], [wloŋ], [lõ], [ɦlʋ̩ɣ], [ɦjɔ]̃ , [ɦjõ], etc.
A1b: monosyllabic form including a voiceless lateral initial /l̥ /[l̥ ɔ]̃ etc.
A2a: disyllabic form (compound) corresponding to WrT rlung dmar
[ɦlɔ̃ mɛ:], [wlɔ̃ mɛ:], [jõ məɣ:], etc.
A2b: disyllabic form (compound) corresponding to WrT rlung ma
1 A suprasegmental description is uniformly omitted.

27

[ɦlo mɐ], [wlo ma], etc.
A2c: disyllabic form (compound) related to WrT rlung dmar
[ɦlɔ̃ peʔ], [ɦlɔ̃ mbeʔ], [ɦlɔ: beʔ], [ɦjɔ̃ pje], [ɦjɔ̃ mjeʔ], etc.
A3: disyllabic form corresponding to WrT rlung kha[ɦlõ kha], [ʁloŋ kha], etc.
A4: other types[ɦlo wo], [hl̥ oŋ ɦdzə]
B-type: a form corresponding to WrT lhags pa[hɜ kə], [hɑ ɦə], [hɑʢ pa], [ɦɑʢ pa], [ɦa pa], etc.
C-type: probably related to WrT bser bu[sha rə], [shɛ lɵ:], etc.
Note that the difference of initials (/l/ or /j/), depending on the whole system of the soundcorrespondence between spoken varieties and WrT. The chronological order should be: /l/ > /j/, however,this is not reflected in the classification above. The voiceless counterpart of the initial /l̥ / (A1b, a part ofA4) might have appeared through another rule of sound change. WrT rlung dmar generally denotes‘stormy wind’. It is a little complicated to distinguish a form corresponding to WrT rlung dmar from one
corresponding to WrT rlung ma.2 For example, the dGudzong dialect (Rongbrag Khams) uses /ɦlɯ̃ maʔ/,which is close to WrT rlung dmar because WrT a in an open syllable in this dialect generally
corresponds to /o/.
B-type always appears as a form ‘root+suffix pa.’ This is the difference between A-type and B-type,i.e., A-type can form a word by using the root itself.3
The semantic difference between rlung and lhags pa in the literary language is concerned with two
aspects: semantic field and degree of strength of wind: rlung also denotes ‘air,’ ‘breath’ as well as ‘airelement (one of the four elements in the world)’, and rlung is stronger than lhags pa ‘breeze’. However,it seems that there are only few oral varieties which still maintain the distinction of meaning by different
lexical forms.

3

Geographical distribution and interpretation

I present two linguistic maps (see the end of the article). Map 1 displays an overall distribution of theword forms for ‘wind’, reflecting the classification provided in Section 1, while Map 2 is an enlarged
version of the southeastern Khams area. The linguistic maps here were designed with ArcGIS online.
As Map 1 displays, the A type (using a word including WrT rlung form) is widespread in the eastern
Tibetosphere. The B and C types are both distributed in the north-eastern area of this region, and they areused in the varieties which are linguistically divided as ‘Eastern Section’ (Tournadre 2014, Tournadre &Suzuki forthcoming), and speakers of these varieties are said to be descendants of immigrants fromsomewhere in Central Tibet in the period of Tibet Empire (Yang 2009:94-95; Sum-bha Don-grubTshe-ring 2011:37-38). According to the data of modern varieties spoken in Central Tibet (Iwasa et al.
this volume), the use of the B type is attested even in Lhasa. However, the B type is registered in WrT
and not regarded as a dialectal word, hence sharing the word form is not a strong evidence to connect thevarieties spoken in Central Tibet with those in Eastern Section. In addition, several varieties in Eastern
Section also use the A type. Their distribution is scattered; hence, the A type might not have beenacquired by the influence of surrounding languages (mainly Amdo). In Literary Tibetan, in fact, both the
A form (rlung) and the B form (lhags pa) are used, denoting ‘wind’ and ‘breeze’ respectively. Even atpresent, coexistence of either the ‘A and B’ type or the ‘B and C’ type is attested in a few varieties.
However, this difference is not reflected on the map.
2 This form is used in such languages and dialects as Dzongkha and Kongpo outside the eastern Tibetosphere(personal communication with Nicolas Tournare, 2016).
3 There are several dialects from Rongbrag which employ a form corresponding to WrT lhags pa for ‘frost’, not‘wind.’ This use has already been attested in the 18th century, because it is recorded in Muping Yiyu, one of the nine
texts known as Ding-series Xifan Yiyu (Suzuki 2007).

28

The A type is divided into seven subgroups in total, based on word formation patterns (A1, A2, A3,
A4) and phonetic realisations (A1a, A1b; A2a, A2b. A2c). Of the seven subcategories, A1a and A1b
only consist of a word stem. The formation of A1b is irregular, just attested in the southern Khams area.
The varieties using A1b are spoken on the border area of dialect groups such as Sems-kyi-Nyila,
Chaphreng, Muli-nDappa, and sDerong-nJol. A2a, A2b, and A2c are similar to each other in terms of
the second morpheme of the word, however, it is not certain whether A2c is genetically closer to A2a or
A2b. The A2 form is originally related to two WrT forms, i.e., rlung dmar ‘strong wind, hurricane’ andrlung ma ‘wind’. This means that A2 has two origins, however, because of the existence A2c, they aredealt with together. In Section 2, I mention that A2c is closer to A2a, however, it is just an assumption.
Since A2a and A2b have a WrT correspondence for each, it is probably correct to claim that the common
form distributed in two or more places which are geographically far from each other, e.g., several
varieties of Rongbrag Khams and various varieties spoken in Yunnan for A2a, is not because of a sharedinnovation but because of coincidence. More interestingly, one should note the distribution of A2a, A2b,
and A2c in Yunnan. That of A2a is surrounded by A2b and A2c (see Map 2). If this is considered as an
example of the ABA-distribution, A2a is more recent form than A2b and A2c. However, paying
attention to the distribution of A2c, we find that it is concentrated in the area to the north-west of A2aand A2b, it can be treated separately. Only one A2c form attested along the Jinshajiang River (mBukha
dialect; Sems-kyi-nyila Khams) implies that this form originates from sDerong-nJol Khams spoken in
the northwest to the region through where a main traffic road passes. If we accept this observation, therelationship between A2a and A2b will be a key question. Looking at the distribution along theLancangjiang River, we can notice that A2a and A2b look like an ABA-distribution. Since A2a issituated in the centre, it might be a more recent form than surrounding A2b forms. If these word forms
are not originally different and related to each other, the geographical distribution will mean the form
rlung ma has changed into rlung dmar because of confusion of the sound structure (see Suzuki 2011).
People in younger generation might have forgotten the original form and have made an analogy
regarding the second syllable, and begin to confuse one form with the other. To the contrary, the dialects
spoken along the Jinshajiang River are a quite different case. Since the dialects using A2a belong to theEast Yunling Mountain subgroup, whereas those using A2b, to the Melung subgroup. The latter group is
likely to have A2b originally based on its phonetic realisation, which suggests lack of the final r in WrT.
The former group is more sensitive to the pronunciation corresponding to the WrT final r, which ismaintained as a consonantal feature, or omitted with an influence to the preceding vowel. Therefore, thiscase can be analysed as an existence of two different word forms. A3 is mainly found in the Minyag
Rabgang area, regardless of the languages. Some varieties of Minyag Rabgang Khams use A3, and somesurrounding varieties of Amdo also use it. The expansion of A3 could have started from Minyag
Rabgang Khams, which is regarded as a sedentary, more archaic variety in the local historical context(Sonam Wangmo 2013, Suzuki & Sonam Wangmo 2015). A4, including two exceptional forms [ɦlo wo]
and [hl̥ oŋ ɦdzə], are attested in the Babzo dialect (dPalskyid Tibetan) and the Rwata dialect (Chaphreng
Khams), respectively. The origin of these word forms is still unclear.
The B type is mainly attested in the Sharkhog and Khodpokhog area. There are so many phonetic
varieties depending on languages, however, they are certainly connected with WrT lhags pa ‘wind’,
which is widely used in Central Tibet.
The C type is mainly attested in Thewo and Cone counties. This word form seems to correspond to
WrT bser bu ‘breeze’,4 however, the sound correspondence expected based on this spelling is not anaspirated initial, but a preaspirated one. Hence, the origin of this word form is still unclear. In this reason,
this form is characterised as a word of local vernaculars. The varieties using the C-type also use theB-type to denote ‘strong wind’. The distribution of the B-type and the C-type almost connect with eachother.
Based on the description of Iwasa et al. (this volume), more one form is found in Tibetic languages:
WrT ’ur. However, this form is not generally used in the eastern Tibetosphere.

4 This suggestion was based on a personal communication with Tsering Samdrup, 2016).

29

4Conclusion

The word of ‘wind’ in the eastern Tibetic languages mainly corresponds to WrT rlung everywhere in theeastern Tibetosphere, and other than this monosyllabic word, several patterns of compound are also
employed. In addition, the case of the Tibetic languages in Yunnan provides us of a good example for ageolinguistic discussion on an analysis of the development of word forms. As minorities, WrT lhags pa
as well as /sha rə/, possibly corresponding to WrT bser bu, are also found. It is also found that several
dialects have two (or more) words denoting ‘wind’, which is common to Literary Tibetan.

Acknowledgements
I should like to express my gratitude to my Tibetan friends who helped me and taught me their mothertongue. Field research was funded by four Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science [JSPS]: “Linguistic Substratum in Tibet” (headed by Yasuhiko Nagano,No. 16102001), “Dialectological Study of the Tibetan Minority Languages in the Tibetan Cultural Areain West Sichuan” (headed by the present author), “International Field Survey of the rGyalrongic
Languages” (headed by Yasuhiko Nagano, No. 21251007), “Study on the Dialectal Development ofTibetan Spoken in Yunnan, China, through a Description of the Linguistic Diversity” (headed by thepresent author, No. 25770167), and “International Field Survey of Tibeto-Burman Link Languages”(headed by Yasuhiko Nagano, No. 16H02722), as well as and a private financial support of Tibetan
Studies Committee of Yunnan Ethnology Association headed by Xu Jianhua.
References
Iwasa, K., H. Suzuki, K. Kurabe, S. Ebihara, S. Shirai, and I. Matsuse. 2017. Wind: Tibeto-Burman. Studies in
Asian Geolinguistics IV ---Wind--- (this volume)
Sonam Wangmo. 2013. Lhagang Monastery in Myth, History and Contemporary Society. MPhil. Thesis,
Universitetet i Oslo.
Sum-bha Don-grub Tshe-ring. 2011. Bod-kyi yul-skad rnam-bshad. Zhongguo Zangxue Chubanshe.
Suzuki, H. 2007. Qingdai Muping Tusi suoguan diqu de Zangyu fangyan. Kangding Minzu Shifan Gaodeng
Zhuanke Xuexiao Xuebao 3:1-5 [Also found in: H. Suzuki, Dongfang Zangqu Zhuyuyan Yanjiu, 233-242,
Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe, 2015].
Suzuki, H. 2009. Introduction to the method of the Tibetan linguistic geography---a case study in the Ethnic
Corridor of West Sichuan---. In Yasuhiko Nagano (ed.) Linguistic Substratum in Tibet——New Perspective
towards Historical Methodology (No. 16102001) Report 3:15-34. National Museum of Ethnology.
Suzuki, H. 2011. Zai yinbian guocheng zhong chansheng you xiaoshi de ruanehua yuanyin---Yunnan Deqin
Yanmen xiang Guzha Zangyu zhi li. Kyoto University Linguistic Research 30:35-49.
Suzuki, H. 2015. A geolinguistic description of terms for ‘sun’ in Tibetic languages in the eastern Tibetosphere.
Studies in Asian Geolinguistics I ---Sun---, 79-85.
Suzuki, H. 2016. Zangyu fangyanxue yanjiu yu yuyan ditu: Ruhe kandai Kang fangyan. Minzu Xuekan
2:1-13+92-94.
Suzuki, H. and Sonam Wangmo. 2015. Quelques remarques linguistiques sur le tibétain de Lhagang, «l’endroit
préféré par le Bodhisattva». Revue d’études tibétaines Vol. 32:153-175.
Tournadre, N. 2014. The Tibetic languages and their classification. In Th. Owen-Smith & N. W. Hill (eds.)
Trans-Himalayan Linguistics: Historical and Descriptive Linguistics of the Himalayan Area, 105-129. Walterde Gruyter.
Tournadre, N. and H. Suzuki. forthcoming. The Tibetic Languages: An Introduction to the Family of Languages
Derived from Old Tibetan (with collaboration of Konchok Gyatsho and X. Becker)
Yang, Sh. 2009. Anmuduo Dongbu Zangzu Lishi Wenhua Yanjiu. Minzu Chubanshe.

30

Maps

LegendMap 1: Overall distribution of word forms for ‘wind’.

31LegendMap 2: Distribution of word forms in the southeastern Khams region.

32

C o nt ri b ut o rs
R ei F U K UI, T h e U ni v ersit y of T o k y o
Mi k a F U K A Z A W A, T h e F o u n d ati o n f or R es e ar c h a n d Pr o m oti o n of Ai n u C ult ur e
Y os hi o S AI T Ô, T o k y o G a k u g ei U ni v ersit y
K e nji Y A GI, K o k us hi k a n U ni v ersit y
T a k as hi U E Y A, K y ot o U ni v ersit y of F or ei g n St u di es
F u mi ki S U Z U KI, N a n z a n U ni v ersit y
K a z u e I W A S A, J S P S / K y ot o U ni v ersit y
Hir o y u ki S U Z U KI, U ni v ersit y of Osl o / N ati o n al M us e u m of Et h n ol o g y
K eit a K U R A B E, T o k y o U ni v ersit y of F or ei g n St u di es
S hi h o E BI H A R A, T o k y o U ni v ersit y of F or ei g n St u di es
S at o k o S HI R AI, J S P S / U ni v ersit y of Ts u k u b a
I k u k o M A T S U S E, C e nt er f or N e w ar St u di es
Y os hi his a T A G U C HI, C hi b a U ni v ersit y
Mits u a ki E N D O, A o y a m a G a k ui n U ni v ersit y
Mi k a K O N D O , J oi nt R es e ar c h er, I L C A A, T o k y o U ni v ersit y of F or ei g n St u di es
Ats u k o U T S U MI, M eis ei U ni v ersit y
N o b or u Y O S HI O K A, N ati o n al M us e u m of Et h n ol o g y
Y oi c hi N A G A T O, T o k y o U ni v ersit y of F or ei g n St u di es

A c k n o wl e d g e m e nts
T his v ol u m e is a p art of t h e r es ults of t h e pr oj e ct o n “ St u di es i n Asi a n G e oli n g uisti cs ” 2 0 1 5 2 0 1 7 at t h e I L C A A, T U F S. T h e arti cl es w er e p arti all y s u p p ort e d b y J S P S Gr a nt s-i n-Ai d f or
S ci e nti fi c R es e ar c h ( K A K E N HI) 1 5 K 0 2 5 2 5, 1 6 K 1 6 8 2 0 , 1 7J 4 0 0 8 7, r es p e cti v el y.