On the Etymology of he ‘river’ in Chinese

Abstract

In Chinese he 河 ‘river’ can be used as proper names (for the Yellow River), as well as a common word for rivers in North China. Based on linguistic data, ethnological evidence and historical documents, this paper argues against these leading hypotheses and proposes that he originated from the Old Yi language, entered Chinese through language contact, and replaced shui which was from Old Qiang and later became the only common noun for river in North China.