河

* Oracle bone script:

** Shi group (thick strokes) / 師肥筆: Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡaːl): semantic 水 (“water”) + phonetic 何 (OC *ɡaːl, *ɡaːlʔ).

** Variant: Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡaːl): semantic 水 + phonetic 可 (OC *kʰaːlʔ) (phonetic drawn wavy like water; possibly original form of 歌 (gē), representing wavy sound).

** Corruption: Confused with 何 (hé) (水 (shuǐ) corrupted to 人 (rén); 可 (kě) corrupted to a shoulder burden, possibly original form of 柯 (kē)).

** He group / 何組: Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡaːl): 水 + 何 (more pictographic).

** Huang group / 黃組: Compound of 欠 (qiàn) / 旡 (jì), a shoulder burden, and 水 (shuǐ).

* Western Zhou bronze: Inherits Huang group structure; adds 口 (kǒu).

* Possibly related to 何 (OC *gˤaj) (to bear).

Originally particularly used for the Yellow River, with other rivers known as 水 (OC *qʰʷljilʔ). Later extended generally as a word for rivers in northern China but the influence of 江 (OC *kroːŋ, “Yangtze River; river in southern China”) has meant that modern usage tends to favor it for shorter rivers and creeks except in historical cases.

Further etymology uncertain. Various hypotheses have been proposed:

* Sino-Tibetan. Either:

** Cognate with Tibetan རྒལ (rgal, “to cross, to traverse”) (Coblin, 1986), or

** Derived from 湖 (OC *ɡaː, “lake”) (Matisoff, 1995), or

** that the Yellow River's name stems from the shape, which resembles an adze handle 柯 (OC *kaːl), of a stretch spanning 500 to 600 kilometers "from Héjīn, Tóngguān to east of Zhèngzhōu" (Takashima, 2012).

* A Mongolic loan. Compare Proto-Mongolic *gowl (“river”) > Mongolian ᠭᠣᠣᠯ (ɣool, “river”) (Norman and Mei, 1976). This was argued against in Zhang (1998).

** Miyake (2017) surmises that Proto-Mongolic *gowl (“river”) and 河 (OC *[C.g]ˤaj < *[C.g]ˤal)), even if related, might have come from a third source language, e.g. Xiongnu. If so, compare also Proto-Yeniseian *xur₁ (“water”) in light of Xiongnu's speculated linguistic affinity with the Yeniseian languages.