STEDT
The Body  ›  Limbs, Joints, and Body Measures  ›  Hand, Arm, Wing
STEDT #240

*k(w)aŋ

ARM (upper) / WING
Proto-Tibeto-Burman

Notes

The Bodic forms listed here seem to exemplify this etymon, but there is a complication. WT goŋ basically means ‘upper part’ (Jäschke 1881:72), as in pʻrag-goŋ ‘upper arm’ (pʻrag ‘shoulder’), bol-goŋ ‘upper part of foot’, k'a-lpags goŋ-ma ‘upper lip’. Less obvious compounds with this morpheme are lha-goŋ ‘larynx’ and mur-goŋ ‘temple’.

Cf. also #720 PTB *g-raŋ WING / HAND / ARM.

Note the Jingpho doublet with final velar nasal sìŋ-kōŋ.

A number of other forms with velar initial and high back vowel are also candidates for assignment to this etymon, including (Asakian) Sak ta-kú, tăhù ‘arm’, Lui takhu, tahu ‘arm’; (Kiranti) Limbu ku-lāp ‘wing’, ku-co ‘feather’; also Chepang waʔ-ko ‘small feather’.

There seems no reason to assign Proto Tani #1435 PTani *m-kloŋ FEATHER / WING to this root since there seems to be no trace of a liquid medial.

Chinese comparandum

肱 OC *kwəng, GSR #887f ‘arm, upper arm’; Li 1971: *kwəng; Baxter 1992 #522: *kʷɨng; B & S 2011: *[k]ʷˤəŋ; Schuessler 2007:256; Mand. gōng.

ZJH: Schuessler (2007:256) says this Chinese word “has apparently no outside cognate”, and derives it from Chinese 弓 ‘bow (the weapon)’, Mand. gōng. The proposed correspondence to PTB *k(w)aŋ is reasonable on semantic and phonetic grounds, but the competing internal Chinese etymology must also be considered.

Reflexes & cognates37 reflexes · 16 subgroups

1.1.2Deng4

Iduaprefix◦kʰõ◦pu#236 PTB *m-brwaŋ ‘ARM’ ‘arm (upper)’Pulu 78
Iduaprefix◦kʰo◦sipramorpheme ‘arm (lower)’Pulu 78
Iduaprefix◦kʰu sipramorpheme ‘lower arm’Anonymous 62 Idu

1.3.1Central Naga (Ao Group)2

Yacham-Tengsashimorpheme◦kang ‘wing’Marrison 67 Naga

1.3.2Angami-Pochuri Group1

Ntenyiaprefix◦kwang ‘arm’Marrison 67 Naga

1.5Mikir [Karbi]2

Mikir [Karbi]arprefix◦vengmorpheme◦kong ‘wing’Walker 25 Mik: 13
Mikir [Karbi]vengmorpheme◦kong ‘wing’Marrison 67 Naga

1.7.2.2Konyak-Chang1

Changkak ‘wing’This Chang form perhaps represents a stop-final allofam of this root.Marrison 67 Naga

1.7.3.1Jingpho5

Jingphosingprefix◦kaw ‘wing’Marrison 67 Naga
Jingphosìŋprefix-koŋ ‘wing, e.g. as of a bird or airplane’Maran nd Jingphaw: 1390
Jingphosiŋ³¹prefixko̱³³ n‘wing’Huang and Dai 92 TBL: 0298.19
Jingphoʃiŋ³¹prefix ko̱³³ ‘wing’Liu 84
Jingphoʃiŋ³¹prefixko̱³³ ‘wing’Sun H 91 ZMYY: 171.47

1.7.3.2Asakian1

Sakaprefix◦yáiŋR◦kó ‘wing’Huziwara 08 Sak: 316

6.1.2.2Central Loloish4

Lahu (Nyi)la˰morpheme◦k'aw: ‘arm’Bradley 79 Lahu: 108
Lahu (Shehleh)la˰morpheme◦k'awˍ ‘arm’Bradley 79 Lahu: 108
Lahu (Black)làʔ#695 PTB *lak ‘HAND/LIMB’MesorootsPTani *lak ‘HAND / ARM’PNN *glək ‘HAND’PLB *lakᴸ ‘HAND’PL *lakᴸ ‘HAND’Allofams1 #377 PTB *lak ⪤ *C-yak ‘ARM / HAND / WING’1a #695 PTB *lak ‘HAND/LIMB’1b #696 PTB *yak ‘ARM / HAND / ARMPIT / TICKLE’1c #699 PTB *d-yak ‘HAND / ARM / LEAF’1d #700 PTB *dak ‘ARM / HAND’1e #702 PTB *g-yak ‘ARM / HAND / CUBIT’1f #705 PTB *p-yak ‘ARM’1g #350 PTB *la ‘LEG / FOOT’1h #375 PTB *ya ‘LEG / FOOT’1i #888 PTB *d-ya OR *g-ya ‘FOOT’-qɔ̄ ‘whole arm (shoulder to wrist); narrow part of forearm where it joins the hand’This word was originally glossed ‘whole arm (shoulder to wrist)’ during JAM’s 1965-66 field trip, but was revised to ‘narrow part of forearm where it joins the hand’ when the data was revised on subsequent trips (cf. qɔ̄ ‘neck’). Given the imprecision of body part terminology, it is very possible that both glosses are correct.Matisoff 88 DL: 1353
Lahu (Bakeo)la˰morpheme◦k'aw: ‘arm’Bradley 79 Lahu: 108

8Bai4

Bai (Jianchuan)ji³³R khv̩⁵⁵ ‘wing’Xu 84 Bai
Bai (Jianchuan)ji³³Rkhv⁵⁵ ‘wing’Sun H 91 ZMYY: 171.36
Bai (Jianchuan)ji̱⁴⁴R kʰv̩⁵⁵ ‘wing’Zhao 90: 6.1.9

9.0.1Old Chinese1

Chinese (Old/Mid)kwəng/kwəng ‘arm, esp. upper arm from elbow to shoulder’Karlgren 57 GSR: 887a-e

Cite this entry

STEDT etymon #240, *k(w)aŋ ‘ARM (upper) / WING’.
Stable link: https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/240
Data: STEDT v1.0 (2017). Accessed: [date].
BibTeX
@misc{stedt-240,
  title  = {{*k(w)aŋ 'ARM (upper) / WING'}},
  author = {STEDT},
  year   = {2017},
  note   = {Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) v1.0, etymon #240},
  url    = {https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/240}
}