cognates and descended from multisyllabic Proto-Sinitic *gh?klien.

Schessler (2014) objects to Yan Shigu's statement that ?? was a Xiongnu word; he reconstructs ??'s pronunciation in around 121 BCE as *gi-lian, apparently the same etymon as ? (?) the trigram for "Heaven", in standard Chinese qián < Middle Chinese QYS *gjän < Eastern Han Chinese gian < Old Chinese *gran, which Schuessler etymologizes as from Proto-Sino-Tibetan and related to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-ka-n, cognate with Written Tibetan ??? (Wylie transliteration: mkha') "heaven".