Etymology of Chinese he

On the etymology of Chinese he, two hypotheses have been put forward. Norman & Mei (1976) claim that he is a loanword, borrowed from Mongolian, while Wang Li (1984) and Hongming Zhang (1998, 2002, 2004) claim that he is a Chinese indigenous word. Based on linguistic data, ethnological evidence and historical documents, the authors of this paper argue against these leading hypotheses and propose that he origins from Old Yi language, in contrast with shui, which is from Old Qiang. In the forming process of old Chinese, shui was dominant at the very beginning. However, it was replaced by he in the long run of history. Adapted from the source document