མི

See also: མ, མེ, and མོ

Dzongkha

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-mi(j)-n. Cognate to Chinese 民 (mín).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi˥/

Noun

མི (mi)

1. person, human
2. people, set of persons
3. mortal
4. man
5. -er (agent noun-forming suffix)

Etymology 2

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi˩/

Adverb

མི (mi)

1. not, non-

Sherpa

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-mi(j)-n.

Noun

མི (mi) (Devanagari spelling मि)

1. man

References

• Sherpa Dictionary by Nicolas Tournadre & al., Kathmandu 2009

Tibetan

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-mi(j)-n. Cognate to Chinese 民 (mín).

Pronunciation

• Old Tibetan: /*mi/
• Lhasa: /mi˩˨/
• Batang: /mi˥˧/

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• Old Tibetan:
  • IPA^(key): /*mi/ (reconstructed)
• Ü-Tsang
  • Tibetan pinyin: mi^v
  • (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /mi˩˨/
• Khams
  • (Batang) IPA^(key): /mi˥˧/

Noun

མི • (mi)

1. person, human being, man

Derived terms

• དམག་མི (dmag mi)
• ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་གྱི་མི (phyi rgyal gyi mi)
• མི་ཚང (mi tshang)
• མི་ཚོགས (mi tshogs, “crowd”)
• མི་སེར (mi ser, “serf”)
• མིའི་གསོབ (mi'i gsob, “mannequin”)

Etymology 2

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-. Variant of མ (ma), used in situations where མ (ma) is not used, usually with present and future stems of verbs.

Adverb

མི • (mi)

1. (prepositional negative particle) not, un-

References

• “མི” in The Tibetan Living Dictionary, Mandala Collections, 2021.
• “མི” in Tibetan-English Dictionary.