Reconstruction

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *dbuɣ (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *d-bu-s (Matisoff, STEDT); *(d-)bu (Chou, 1972); *(d-)bu (*B) (Coblin, 1986); *-u (LaPolla, 1987)

Probably contains the indefinite possessive prefix *tV-Category:Proto-Sino-Tibetan terms prefixed with *tV-#TV-PU.

The initial *p (appearing voiceless in Karbi and Chepang) frequently turns up as lenited w (which may be deleted before the *u) in descendants; Tibetan -b- is irregular.

Relating this to Chinese 頭 / 头 would force the reconstruction to be adjusted to *tV-pəw.

Noun

*tV-puCategory:Proto-Sino-Tibetan lemmas#TV-PUCategory:Proto-Sino-Tibetan nouns#TV-PUCategory:Proto-Sino-Tibetan entries with incorrect language header#TV-PUCategory:Pages with entries#TV-PUCategory:Pages with 1 entry#TV-PU

1. head

   Synonyms: *mV-qow, *qV-luʔ

See also

• *mV-qow (“head”)
• *s-muːr (“mouth, lip, face”)
• *s-mjal (“face”)