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1.9.9 Body Fluids

In Sino-Tibetan languages, the words for the various liquids produced by or contained in the body tend to be transparent compounds where the last element is a morpheme meaning ‘water; liquid’. [fn: Exceptions are BLOOD, URINE, SWEAT, and sometimes BILE, which are usually monosyllabic words.] Of the many body fluids, [fn: That is, AMNIOTIC FLUID, BILE, BLOOD, MILK, PHLEGM, PUS, SALIVA, SEMEN, SNOT, SWEAT, TEARS, VAGINAL SECRETIONS.] only a few relate directly to the reproductive system (AMNIOTIC FLUID, MILK, SEMEN, VAGINAL SECRETIONS). In this chapter, however, in order to illustrate the scope of the various ST roots for WATER, I include a generous sampling of compounds referring to non-reproductive body fluids. [fn: The numerous roots for water (over ten at last count) in the STEDT database merit a separate study. Words for WATER seldom seem to be used by themselves in ST languages to mean URINE, unlike e.g. English, where make water is a common euphemism for ‘urinate’; for an exception see the WT form c̀ʻu below.]

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