Character: 線
Modern (Beijing) reading: xiàn
Preclassic Old Chinese: sars
Classic Old Chinese: sanh
Western Han Chinese: sanh
Eastern Han Chinese: sjanh
Early Postclassic Chinese: sjèn
Middle Postclassic Chinese: sjèn
Late Postclassic Chinese: sjèn
Middle Chinese: sjèn
English meaning : thread [L.Zhou]
Russian meaning[s]: 1) нить; леска; проволока; нитяный; вязаный; 2) линия; черта; трасса; линейный; 3) перен. нить; конец клубка; подход, ключ (напр. к вопросу)
Comments: Hsieh-sheng and Sino-Viet. suggest rather an OC form like *sors, which would
normally yield MC sjwèn, in which case loss of labialisation in MC would be
secondary. On the other hand, the Sino-Viet. form can go back to a dialectal MC
*sjwèn with secondary labialisation on analogy with 泉 (MC ʒjwen, q.v.). The
choice between OC *sars and *sors is thus not quite clear. A more usual writing
of this word (since Tang) is **. The same word with the specialized meaning
'gland' is now written as 腺.
normally yield MC sjwèn, in which case loss of labialisation in MC would be
secondary. On the other hand, the Sino-Viet. form can go back to a dialectal MC
*sjwèn with secondary labialisation on analogy with 泉 (MC ʒjwen, q.v.). The
choice between OC *sars and *sors is thus not quite clear. A more usual writing
of this word (since Tang) is **. The same word with the specialized meaning
'gland' is now written as 腺.
Radical: 120
Four-angle index: 5510
Karlgren code: 0237 e
Vietnamese reading: tuyến
