Character: 維
Modern (Beijing) reading: wéi
Preclassic Old Chinese: wij
Classic Old Chinese: wij
Western Han Chinese: wjǝj
Eastern Han Chinese: źwǝj
Early Postclassic Chinese: źwɨj
Middle Postclassic Chinese: jwɨj
Late Postclassic Chinese: jwɨj
Middle Chinese: jwi
English meaning : impersonal equational copula: to be, it is
Russian meaning[s]: 1) связывать; связь; соединять; 2) нить, леска; 3) сохранять, соблюдать; 4) глагольная связка есть, является; 5) служебное слово в начале предложения, ритмически выделяющее подлежащее; 6) только, лишь, но; 7) в офиц. документах ставится перед датами в начале предложения
Shuowen gloss: 車蓋維也.從糸.隹聲.
Comments: Schüssler reconstructs the word with *l- (*ljuǝj), but it very clearly rhymes in *-ij in OC and thus must have possessed a labial initial. For initial *w- (not *wh-) cf. Xiamen i2, Chaozhou zui2, Fuzhou mi2 (the last two forms reflect a secondary Min nasalisation).
The word is alternatively written in Early Zhou as ** or 惟.
The original meaning and reading of the character is *wij 'to bind, tie' attested in Early Zhou (Shuowen glosses it as "cover of a carriage" - perhaps as "smth. tied"?).
The etymology of the copula is not quite clear: perhaps one should relate it to 為 *waj 'to do, make' q.v. (with *-aj / *-ij as old vowel alternation?).
Radical: 120
Four-angle index: 899
Karlgren code: 0575 o-p
Shijing occurrences: 2.1, 3.2, 3.3, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 15.2, 21.2, 24.3, 27.1, 27.2, 45.1, 45.2, 57.1
