STEDT Etymon #5909
2.0 Animals and Animal Verbs > 2.2 Other Animals > 2.2.7 Other Mammals > 2.2.7.1 Otter
#5909 PTB *phyam OTTER (provisional) |
Very likely an areal word: cf. terms for ‘otter’ Mon-Khmer: Palaungic: Riang (Lang) bon², Bahnaric: Sre (Koho) phiŋ, Mnong (Rölöm) bhiːŋ, Bahnar (Pleiku) phɛɛj; additional related entries and source references for all of these are available at http://sealang.net/monkhmer/dictionary .
猵 OC *piɑn, GSR #246i ‘otter’; Schuessler 2007:165 *pên; Mand. biān.
Comment: Cf. discussion in STC 107, n. 302, also Matisoff (2010). Forms with initial p‑ for ‘otter’ are apparently rare across TB languages, cf. WB phyam, Spoken Burmese phjɑ̃²², and Sak and Marma (both phaing). An areal word in both Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman; see note above.