二
| Character: | 二 |
| Modern (Beijing) reading: | èr |
| Preclassic Old Chinese: (10th - 6th cent B.C.) | nijs |
| Classic Old Chinese: (5th - 3rd cent B.C.) | nić |
| Western Han Chinese: (end of 3rd cent B.C. - 0 A.D.) | njǝś |
| Eastern Han Chinese: (0 - begin. of 3rd cent A.D.) | ńǝś |
| Early Postclassic Chinese: (3rd cent A.D.) | ńiś |
| Middle Postclassic Chinese: (4th cent A.D.) | ńìj |
| Late Postclassic Chinese: (5th cent A.D.) | ńì |
| Middle Chinese: (end of 6th - begin. of 10th cent A.D.) | ńì |
| English meaning : | two |
| Russian meaning[s]: | 1) два; второй; 2) двойной; дважды; 3) второй номер, помощник |
| Comments: | For early OC a reconstruction *nit-s is also possible. Viet. has an interesting opposition:nhị 'two' - nhì 'second' - the basis for it within Chinese is not clear. For *n- cf. Xiamen ʒi6, li6, Chaozhou zi6, Fuzhou ne6, Jianou ni6. |
| Radical: | 7 |
| Four-angle index: | 2 |
| Karlgren code: | 0564 a-f |
| Vietnamese reading: | nhị |
| Jianchuan Bai: | ne6 |
| Dali Bai: | ne6 |
| Shijing occurrences: | 44.1, 44.2, 58.4 |
Ref. for dates: Starostin, Sergei A. 1989, Rekonstrukcija drevnekitajskoj fonologi␂eskoj sistemy, p431-433. Moskva: Nauka.
in: Blažek, Václav, and Michal Schwarz. On Tocharian Vessel-names with Special Regard to B lwake ‘pot’. (2018).
