*maːk

This etymon seems basically to belong in masculine semantic space, since most TB reflexes mean PENIS. The likely Chinese comparandum 牡, Mand. mǔ, means MALE (of certain birds and animals; see below), and this sense also occurs in TB (see Taraon mau-a, below), implying that MALE is the more original meaning.

Benedict 1979¹ suggests a connection with PTB *maːk (better *s-maːk) ‘son-in-law’ [STC #324; HPTB p. 325]: cf. WT mag-pa, Lepcha myok, Dhimal hma-wa, Miri mak-bo ~ mag-bo, Jingpho dà-máʔ, WB səmak, Lahu ɔ̀-má-pā, Lushai [Mizo] maːk-pa. The long vowel is supported by the Mizo form, and the *s- prefix is evidenced indirectly by Lepcha (where -y- < *s-), and directly by Dhimal and WB. This *s- prefix is in turn undoubtedly a reduction of PTB *za SON / CHILD.

Nevertheless, this root has undergone an enantiodromic shift or “genital flipflop” to mean VAGINA in both Karbi and (probably) Newar (neither of these forms was cited in Benedict 1979), so that it was evidently reinterpreted in some areas as ‘genitals (of either sex)’. This makes one wonder whether the root #1353 NEIA *mo VAGINA, reconstructed on the basis of forms from Naga languages, might also be somehow related to the present etymon.

A likely Chinese comparandum has been suggested by Benedict 1979, pp. 22-23 and n. 36: 牡 OC *môg/*mə̯u [irreg.], GSR #1063a ‘male (quadruped)’; Li 1971: *məgwx; Baxter 1992: *m(r)juʔ; Mand. mǔ [JAM].

The Middle Chinese reflex of this word has irregular vocalism: *mə̯u. This accounts for the discrepancy between Baxter’s reconstruction (with medial *-j-) and Li’s (without medial *-j-). The presence of *-j- in Baxter’s form accounts regularly for vocalic development, but the medial itself must then be assumed to drop irregularly in Middle Chinese.

The proposed connection to PTB *maːk presents some difficulties. The Chinese vocalism would normally correspond to a rounded PTB vowel. (See examples in Gong 1995 #61-69.) Although those open syllables in OC reconstructed with *-g by Karlgren and Li sometimes correspond to syllables with coda *-k in PTB, more generally we find OC *-k corresponding to PTB *-k and open syllables corresponding to open syllables.

Schuessler 2007:391 argues that the Chinese word is related to Austroasiatic forms meaning ‘male animal’.
[ZJH]