Reconstruction:Proto-Ryukyuan/teda
Proto-Ryukyuan
[edit]Etymology
[edit]According to Kupchik (2021), borrowed from Amis cidal (“sun”).
Alternatively, ultimately from a source deriving from Chinese 天道.[1] Proponents of the Chinese derivation use other examples where Sino-Japanese au correspond to Proto-Ryukyuan *-a(a); e.g. *sata (“sugar”), *katya (“mosquito net”), etc. Hattori (2018, 67) also cites Old Okinawan correspondances in the Omoro Sōshi, such as すぢや (suj(iy)a, “all living things”, 素性 (sujō)), ひやし (h(i)yashi, “rhythm”, 拍子 (hyōshi)), や (ya, “look, appearance, way”, 様 (yō)), きや (k(i)ya, “capital”, 京 (kyō)), いちらご (ichirago, “Ichirō”, 一郎子 (Ichirō-go)), たら (tara, “Tarō”, 太郎 (Tarō)). However there are problems:
- *sata (“sugar”) has word-final length, which could imply the diminutive suffix *-a(a).
- *katya (“mosquito net”) is strangely absent from all Amami dialects except for Tokunoshima and Yoron, where it instead uses *kaya, but it is attested in Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama topolects, implying a loanword from a Chinese source in (Proto-)Okinawan with a spread to the south.
The word *pi refers to days; this word likely displaced this meaning due to a taboo homonym *pi (“vulva”).
Noun
[edit]*teda
Descendants
[edit]- Northern Ryukyuan:
- Southern Ryukyuan:
References
[edit]- ^ “てぃーだ【天道・太陽】” in JLect - Japonic Languages and Dialects Database Dictionary, 2019.
- Thorpe, Maner Lawton (1983) Ryūkyūan Language History[1], Doctoral dissertation. University of Southern California, pages 336-337