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STEDT #3000

*bak

STRIP OFF
Proto-Tibeto-Burman

Notes

This root is so far sparsely attested, with support only from Lahu and Chinese. The voiced Lahu initial points to a PLB prenasalized consonant *mb-.

Chinese comparandum

剥 OC *pŭk, GSR #1228a ‘cut, flay, peel’; WHB-OC 544; Schuessler 157; Li: *pruk; Baxter: *prok > Mand. bō ~ bāo.

The poor vowel correspondence, and the lack of a directly attested *-r- on the TB side,1 cast doubt on the proposed cognate, but more TB support for the root would be necessary to reconstruct a reliable PTB root and fully evaluate the connection.

Schuessler cites Manomaivibool 1975:120 and relates the Chinese word to Thai pɔɔkD1 ‘to peel’ and Thai lɔɔkD2 ‘to skin, peel’ ⪤ plɔɔkD1 ‘encasement, slipcover, sheath’ < PTai *dlɔɔk.

1 Although -r- would leave no trace in Lahu here.

Reflexes & cognates5 reflexes · 2 subgroups

6.1.2.2Central Loloish4

Lahu (Black)bàʔ ‘slice/cut into lengths’Matisoff 88 DL: 933
Lahu (Black)bàʔ ‘cut into boards’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 111(d)
Lahu (Black)bàʔ bàmorpheme ve#450 PTB *way ‘BE / COPULA / NOMINALIZER / SUBORDINATOR’Allofams1 #1821 PTB *s/g-ray ⪤ *way ‘BE / COPULA / NOMINALIZER / SUBORDINATOR / GOD’1a #449 PTB *g-ray ‘BE / COPULA / NOMINALIZER / SUBORDINATOR’1b #658 PTB *g-ray ‘GOD / CREATOR’1c #450 PTB *way ‘BE / COPULA / NOMINALIZER / SUBORDINATOR’1d #5495 PTB *s-ray ‘PLURALIZER’ ‘slice off (as a strip of bark)’Lahu bà means ‘throw away’ in isolation, but as an auxiliary verb means ‘to perform an action so that something is gotten rid of’. See HPTB, p. 231.Matisoff 88 DL: 933
Lahu (Black)bᴀ²¹ ‘cut (firewood)’Sun H 91 ZMYY: 604.33

9.0.1Old Chinese1

Chinese (Old/Mid)pŭk ‘cut, flay, peel; lay bare’Karlgren 57 GSR: 1228a

Cite this entry

STEDT etymon #3000, *bak ‘STRIP OFF’.
Stable link: https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/3000
Data: STEDT v1.0 (2017). Accessed: [date].
BibTeX
@misc{stedt-3000,
  title  = {{*bak 'STRIP OFF'}},
  author = {STEDT},
  year   = {2017},
  note   = {Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) v1.0, etymon #3000},
  url    = {https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/3000}
}