Character: 孫
Modern (Beijing) reading: sūn
Preclassic Old Chinese: sw(h)ǝ̄n
Classic Old Chinese: (s)w̥ǝ̄n
Western Han Chinese: (s)w̥ǝ̄n
Eastern Han Chinese: w̥ǝ̄n
Early Postclassic Chinese: swǝ̄n
Middle Postclassic Chinese: swǝ̄n
Late Postclassic Chinese: swǝ̄n
Middle Chinese: son
English meaning : grandson, descendant
Russian meaning[s]: 1) внук; 2) потомки; 3) побеги растений (при вегетативном размножении); 4) Сунь (фамилия); [sùn xùn] уступать, отклоняться; см. 遜
Shuowen gloss: 子之子曰孫.從系子.系續也.
Comments: The OC reconstruction presents some problems. MC son would normally presuppose OC *sūn - and this is the more or less commonly accepted reconstruction (see Schüssler 592 *suǝn, Baxter 790 *sun etc.). However, the word rhymes only with non-labialised *-ǝn or *-an in Shijing, which seems to favour a reconstruction like *sw(h)ǝ̄n in OC. This must be, then, a case of irregular development *sw(h)- > s(w)- in the 1st division in MC (normally *xon would be expected). Shuowen regards 系 in 孫 as a semantic element, but it may in fact be phonetic - cf. its use in 鯀 *kwǝ̄n.
Radical: 39
Four-angle index: 8296
Karlgren code: 0434 a-c
Jianchuan Bai: suã4
Dali Bai: sua4
Bijiang Bai: sõ4
Shijing occurrences: 5.1, 24.2, 24.3_, 31.2
