何

In the oracle bone script, a pictogram (象形): a man carrying something on their shoulder – the original form of 荷 (OC *ɡaːlʔ, “to carry”).

The object being carried may have been 戈 (gē), in which case the character is also an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡaːl, *ɡaːlʔ): semantic 人 (“person”) + phonetic 戈 (OC *koːl, “dagger-axe”).

In the bronze inscriptions, some forms of the character were phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡaːl, *ɡaːlʔ): semantic 人 (“person”) + phonetic 可 (OC *kʰaːlʔ), from which the modern form derives.

Cognate with the following interrogative pronouns:

* 胡 (OC *ɡaː, “what; why”)

* 奚 (OC *ɡeː, “what; why; where”)

* 曷 (OC *ɡaːd, “why”)

* 盍 (OC *ɡaːb, “why not”): from the fusion of 何不 (OC *ɡaːl pɯ, “why not”)

In Sino-Tibetan, cognate with Tibetan ག་ན (ga na, “where; how”), Tibetan ག་རུ (ga ru, “to where”) (Schuessler, 2007).

STEDT, on the other hand, compares 何 (OC *ɡaːlʔ) to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ka (“which; like; deictic; interrogative”), to which 幾 (OC *kɯlʔ, “how many”) and 豈 (OC *ŋ̊ʰɯlʔ, “how”) are also compared.