#5937 PTB *məy-k LEG / FOOT (provisional)

Evidence for the current etymon is primarily seen in Tangut-Qiang data, with some cognates in Naxi dialects. These data seem distinct from reflexes of #1002 PTB *r‑mi(y)‑n PERSON / MAN / BODY PART PREFIX, which in rGyalrongic usually retain the initial *r‑ of the proto-etymon. We suggest instead a comparison with #39 PTB *mey FLESH / MEAT / GAME ANIMAL, implying an alternation between general (’flesh’) and specific (’leg, foot’) as concerns body parts.

A similar semantic alternation is seen in #47 PTB *ta(m)‑ FLESH / MEAT vs. #5947 PTB *(d/t)am THUMB and #4183 PKC *tan CALF (of leg), where only the first of these etyma has reflexes in rGyalrongic languages.

Regarding general vs specific parts of the body within and across languages outside of TB, cf. Spanish, which has a doublet muslo ‘thigh’ vs. the more learned musculo ‘muscle’, both from Latin mūsculus; English bone vs. German Bein ‘leg’, both from PGer *bainą ‘bone’; German Knochen ‘bone’ and its derived form Knöchel ‘knuckle, ankle’ (cf. English ‘knuckle’ itself, mainly as ‘any of the joints of the fingers’; also, human ‘knee’ (premodern usage) but currently still referring to ‘kneejoint of a quadruped’, and to various cuts of meat, e.g. ‘beef knuckle, pork knuckle’), all of these eventually from PWGer *knokō ‘bone, joint’.

Also note the Chinese comparandum 脢 méi ‘meat on the sides of the spine’; i.e. ‘bony meat’, which would also describe the flesh of the foot.