tools   help STEDT Etymon #298

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1.0 The Body > 1.9 Reproductive System > 1.9.9 Body Fluids

• PKC *tuy WATER / FLUID / LIQUID
• PTk *dɨ WATER
• PLB *m/ʔ-titᴴ WET / SOAK
• PKar *thejᴬ WATER

Chinese comparanda

涕 OC *t’iər, GSR #591m ‘weep, tears’; Li 1971: (*thidx); Baxter 1992:792 *thijʔ; Mand. tì.

The Middle Chinese reading would permit an Old Chinese reconstruction in either the OC 脂 Zhī rhyme group (*‑id (Li)/*‑ij (Baxter)) or the OC 微 Wēi rhyme group (*‑əd (Li)/*‑ɨj (Baxter)). Li does not reconstruct this word, but he assigns other words in GSR #591 to the 脂 Zhī group. Words in GSR #591 are reconstructed some with one vowel, some with the other by Baxter (see 1992:457ff for an explanation), but 涕 is reconstructed with *‑ij because it rhymes unambiguously with a number of 脂 Zhī group words in Shījīng #203. Still, it is possible that in Baxter’s system the word goes back to earlier *thɨjʔ, with vowel fronting occurring early in the dialect on which the Shījīng poem was based. Baxter proposes just such a development for other words in the phonetic series.

If the OC vowel is reconstructed as *i, the vowel correspondence with the proposed TB cognate is regular (see #300 PTB *d(w)əy EGG / TESTICLE for examples). A 微 Wēi group reconstruction of *‑əd (Li)/*‑ɨj (Baxter) does not jeopardize the comparison, but this Chinese rhyme seems to correspond to TB *‑ay more often than to TB *‑əy. It may be that the correspondence with *‑ay is regular while that with *‑əy is irregular but not uncommon. See #519 PTB *s‑tay NAVEL / ABDOMEN / CENTER / SELF and #1160 PTB *ŋ‑(w)aːy COPULATE / MAKE LOVE / LOVE / GENTLE, but note also ‘hungry’ 飢 OC *krjɨj (Baxter), TB *b‑kri‑(n/s); Mand. jī.

On the aspiration mismatch in the initials, see the discussion under #1654 PTB *pu EGG.
[ZJH]

水 OC *śi̯wər, GSR #576a-e ‘water, river’; Li 1971: --; Baxter 1992 #1239: *h[l]jujʔ; Mand. shuǐ.

Gong 1995 #133 reconstructs *hljədx and compares to WT chu ‘water, brook, river’, presumably assuming that the latter derives from an earlier form with a lateral initial. The comparison is, however, not tenable given the reconstruction of the PTB root #1631 PTB *tsyu WATER / LIQUID / BODY FLUID.

This Chinese word is most likely related to PTB *lwi(y) ‘flow, stream’ (see STC #210), as proposed by Coblin (1986:158) and discussed in Handel (1998). A relationship with #298 PTB *m‑t(w)əy‑n ⪤ *m‑ti‑s WATER / FLUID / LIQUID / RIVER / SOAK / SPIT seems unlikely because of the mismatch of initial consonants.
[ZJH]

川 OC *t̑’i̯wən, GSR #462a ‘river’; Li 1971: *thjiən ?; Baxter 1992 #1126: *KHju/on; Mand. chuān.

The reconstruction of this Chinese word is problematic. As Karlgren (GSR #462a) notes, the Middle Chinese form is probably irregular. The Old Chinese rhyme group is uncertain, which is why Baxter gives two possibilities for the vowel. Baxter’s capital *KH indicates a velar initial that palatalized irregularly in the development of Middle Chinese. Handel (1998) reconstructs *khlun and Schuessler (2007:195) *k‑hlun, because GSR #462 looks like a lateral series. Schuessler further suggests that the Chinese word is related to PTB *kluːŋ ‘river / valley’, which has areal connections with Austroasiatic and Tai. However, this does not explain the *‑n coda in Chinese.

The proposed PTB comparison in this volume depends on an Old Chinese reconstruction like Li’s with a dental initial, which in Baxter’s system would look like *thjun. However, the vowel correspondence is still irregular, and the comparison further requires positing an *‑n suffix not found in Tibeto-Burman.
[ZJH]