STEDT
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STEDT #520

*du

NAVEL / UMBILICAL CORD
Proto-Tibeto-Burman · exemplary

Reconstruction analysis

handleduinitialdrhymeucoverT · V

Notes

The stronghold of this etymon is Lolo-Burmese (including Jinuo), but cognates also occur in the NE Indian Areal Group, Himalayish, and Tujia.

The second syllable of the Kaman [Miju] form pɑ³¹ tɯ³¹ lɑi⁵⁵ is probably just a reflex of the *s- prefix in #517 PTB *m/s-la(ː)y NAVEL / CENTER / SELF, above. See the note on Kaman [Miju] tlái under that etymon.

Chinese comparandum

肚 OC *d'o ‘stomach’; GSR: not in #62; Li 1971: *dagx; Baxter 1992: *laʔ or *daʔ; Mand. dù.

There is also a variant with a voiceless initial, meaning ‘animal stomach used as food’. GSR #62 is reconstructed as a lateral-initial series by Baxter, but since the character is not attested until late, it is possible that this word had a dental initial, and that the character used to write it was created after the change *l- > *d- had taken place, making 土 *hlaʔ > *thaʔ, Mand. tǔ a suitable phonetic element.

The difficulty with this comparison lies in the vowel, as we would expect to find PTB *a corresponding with OC *a, as in Chinese 吾 ‘first person pronoun’ *ngag (Li)/*nga (Baxter), Mand. wú and PTB *ŋa (STC #406); and Chinese 魚 ‘fish’ *ngjag (Li)/*ng(r)ja (Baxter), Mand. yú and PTB *ŋya (STC #189).
[ZJH]

Reflexes & cognates56 reflexes · 10 subgroups

1.7.1.1Bodo4

2.1.4Tamangish2

Gurung (Ghachok)thu ‘umbilical cord’Matisoff 87 BP

5Tujia2

Tujiamɯe¹³morpheme tɕi⁵⁵morpheme dɯ³⁵ ‘navel’Tujia mɯe¹³ tɕi⁵⁵ ‘belly’.Chen 86 TuMQ: 5.7.1

6.1.2.1Northern Loloish11

6.1.2.2Central Loloish29

Kucongfv55morpheme dv31 ‘navel’Dai 09 Kucong

6.2Naxi4

Naxidv̩²¹me³³morpheme n‘belly’Huang and Dai 92 TBL: 0096.45
Naxidv̩²¹u³³morpheme v.‘bloated, feel (of the stomach)’Huang and Dai 92 TBL: 1788.45
Naxi (Western)dv³¹me³³morpheme ‘belly’He 85
Naxi (Lijiang)dv³¹me³³morpheme ‘belly’Sun H 91 ZMYY: 260.28

Cite this entry

STEDT etymon #520, *du ‘NAVEL / UMBILICAL CORD’.
Stable link: https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/520
Data: STEDT v1.0 (2017). Accessed: [date].
BibTeX
@misc{stedt-520,
  title  = {{*du 'NAVEL / UMBILICAL CORD'}},
  author = {STEDT},
  year   = {2017},
  note   = {Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) v1.0, etymon #520},
  url    = {https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/520}
}