ThisProto-Sino-Tibetan entry containsreconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directlyattested, but are hypothesized to have existed based oncomparative evidence.

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan:
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *ma-y ⪤ *mey (Matisoff, 2003;STEDT)

Most non-Sinitic languages reflect*maj; the Chinese and and Tangkhul vowels are highly aberrant compared to them.

Sagart in 2011 believed that the use of this word to mean "rice" across Sino-Tibetan indicated that Proto-Sino-Tibetans knew rice; he has since retracted this idea since Chinese米(mǐ) turns out to not actually be rice-specific.^[1]

Sagart (2018) believes that the-m in the Jingpho form comes from the contraction of a compound with*ʔəm(“to eat; rice”).

*mej

1. grain

• Chinese:米(OC *(C.)mˤ[e]jʔ (B-S)) (see there for further descendants)
• rGyalrongic
  • East rGyalrongic
    • Situ:smai-khrī(“millet”)
• Proto-Bodo-Garo:*mai¹(“rice”)
  • Atong (India):mai(“rice”)
  • Dimasa:mai
  • Garo:mi(“rice”)
  • Kokborok:mai
  • Rabha:মাই(mai)
• Jingpho-Asakian
  • Jingpho:mam(“rice”)
• Proto-Tangkhulic:*ma
  • Tangkhul Naga:mā(“paddy”)
• Proto-Karen:*may
• Tani
  • Eastern Tani
    • Bokar:amë

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan lemmas
• Proto-Sino-Tibetan nouns

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• Chinese terms with non-redundant manual transliterations