STEDT
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STEDT #702

*g-yak

ARM / HAND / CUBIT
Proto-Tibeto-Burman

Reconstruction analysis

handleyakprefixginitialyrhymeakcoverL · T

Connections

Allofams
HPTB*g-yak ‘armpit / tickle / cubit’pp. 51, 317, 326, 329
HPTB (PLB)*ʔ-gyakᴴ ‘cubit’p. 51

Notes

This allofam with velar prefix has been specialized semantically into the areas of armpits/tickling and cubits. Of particular interest is the triplet in WB below, reflecting three separate allofams of our etymon: the naked root in lak-kăli, the variant with dental prefix (written tshak-kăli in the transcription of STC but better interpreted as chak-kăli), and the present variant with velar prefix (gyak-kăli).

The Lahu form with voiced initial, jâʔ, points to a variant with a nasal prefix, perhaps at the Proto-Loloish level.

There is a separate root ‘right hand’, reconstructed as *g-ya ⪤ *g-ra in STC #98.

There is still another resemblant root *g-ya TICKLE (STC #51) underlying WT gya-ba ‘tickle, itch’, Jingpho kəyá ‘id.’, WB yâb ‘itch’.

Chinese comparandum

翼 OC *gi̯ək, GSR #954d ‘wing’; Li 1971: (*rək); Baxter 1992 #469: *ljɨk; B & S 2011: *ɢrəp (with dialectal change to -k)1; Schuessler 2007:570; Mand. yì.

趩 OC *tʼi̯ək, GSR #954g ‘sound of marching’; Li 1971: (*thrjək); Baxter 1992: (*hlrjɨk); B & S 2011: --; Schuessler 2007:--; Mand. chì.

腳/脚 OC *ki̯ɑk, GSR #776g-h ‘leg, foot’; Li 1971: (*kjak); Baxter 1992: (*kjak); B & S 2011: *s.kak, [k]ak; Schuessler 2007:309; Mand. jiǎo.

匊/掬 OC *ki̯ôk, GSR #1017a,c ‘both hands joined; grasp with both hands; double-handful’; Li 1971: (*kjəkw); Baxter 1992:770: *k(r)juk; B & S 2011: (*k(r)uk); Schuessler 2007:--; Mand. jū.

JAM: GSR reconstructs this morpheme (翼), Mand. yì with initial *gi̯-, but STC prefers *di̯-, since the phonetic series (GSR #954) also contains 趩 *t’i̯ək/t̂’i̯ək, Mand. chì ‘sound of marching’. Baxter’s (2011) reconstruction *ɢrəp reverts to the interpretation with velar (actually postvelar) onset.

Benedict (p.c.) later agreed with the GSR reconstruction, assuming that it is underlain by an earlier *gli̯ək. He then derived the allofam in *t'- from an alternant with prefixal *s-, i.e. *ski̯ək, but this is not very convincing.

Yang 1980 suggests further Chinese comparanda: 腳/脚 OC *ki̯ɑk ‘leg, foot’, GSR #776g, Mand. jiǎo; and 匊/掬 OC *ki̯ôk ‘both hands joined; grasp with both hands; double-handful’, GSR #1017a-c, Mand. jū.

ZJH: Of these four Chinese comparanda, only the first, 翼 yì ‘wing’, is defensible, although the more likely PTB comparandum is *(g-)lak (Handel 2009:133-5). Both 趩 chì and 匊/掬 jū are impossible as they are not close in terms of sound correspondences; 腳/脚 jiǎo ‘foot’ is conceivable if we assume prefix-preemption of PST *g-yak on the Chinese side, but the semantic shift makes this comparison speculative at best.

1 See explanation for coda *-p in discussion of #699 PTB *d-yak HAND / ARM / LEAF.

Reflexes & cognates19 reflexes · 11 subgroups

0.1Tibeto-Burman (previously published reconstructions)2

*Tibeto-Burman(g-)yɑk ‘armpit’Chou 72: 800m
*Tibeto-Burmang-yak ‘armpit / tickle / cubit’Matisoff 03 HPTB: 619

1.7.1.2Garo3

Garo (Bangladesh)jak-gitmorpheme-okmorpheme ‘wrist’[Source note] (lit: arm-neck).Burling 92 GaBa
Garo (Bangladesh)jak-gitmorpheme-okmorpheme n‘wrist’Burling 03 Garo: 6.235-II:idx
Garo (Bangladesh)jak-tongmorpheme ‘forearm, lower part of forearm, wrist’Burling 92 GaBa

1.7.1.3Koch1

Atongchak◦gymorpheme◦dokmorpheme n‘wrist’van Breugel 08 Atong

1.7.2.2Konyak-Chang2

Wanchocak diŋmorpheme ‘wrist’French 83: 525
Wanchochak◦lomorpheme, chak◦dingmorpheme ‘wrist’Marrison 67 Naga

6.1Lolo-Burmese5

*Lolo-BurmeseNkyak ‘cubit (elbow to fingertips)’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 100(a)
*Lolo-Burmeseʔkyak (HIGH)‘cubit (elbow to fingertips)’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 100(b)
*Lolo-Burmeseʔkyak ‘cubit (elbow to fingertips)’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 100(b)

6.1.1Burmish2

Burmese (Written)gyak-kăliʼ#1289 PTB *g-li-k ‘ARMPIT / TICKLE’PCN *k-lik ‘TICKLE’PTk *rik ‘ARMPIT’ ⪤ tshak#699 PTB *d-yak ‘HAND / ARM / LEAF’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’-kăliʼ#1289 PTB *g-li-k ‘ARMPIT / TICKLE’PCN *k-lik ‘TICKLE’PTk *rik ‘ARMPIT’ ⪤ lak#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’-kăliʼ#1289 PTB *g-li-k ‘ARMPIT / TICKLE’PCN *k-lik ‘TICKLE’PTk *rik ‘ARMPIT’ ‘armpit’The first syllables of this important triplet represent three separate allofams of the first etymon in this study: gyak < #702 PTB *g-yak ARM / HAND / CUBIT, tshak (also transcribable as chak < #699 PTB *d-yak HAND / ARM / LEAF, and lak < #695 PTB *lak HAND/LIMB.Benedict 72 STC: 265

6.1.2.2Central Loloish5

Lahu (Black)jâʔ ‘cubit (elbow to fingertips)’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 100(a)
Lisucha³ ‘length of outstretched fingers’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 100(b)
Sani [Nyi]ca 44 ‘cubit (elbow to fingertips)’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 100(b)

6.1.2.3Southern Loloish1

Akhaca HS ‘cubit (elbow to fingertips)’Matisoff 72 LTSR: 100(b)

8Bai2

Bai (Jianchuan)a³¹prefix tɕa̱⁴² ‘cubit (elbow to fingers)’Zhao 90: 13.3
Bai (Jianchuan)tɕa̱⁴² ‘cubit (elbow to fingers)’Zhao 90: 13.3

9.0.1Old Chinese2

Chinese (Old/Mid)di̯ək/i̯ək ‘wing’Chou 72: 954d

9.0.2Middle Chinese1

Cite this entry

STEDT etymon #702, *g-yak ‘ARM / HAND / CUBIT’.
Stable link: https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/702
Data: STEDT v1.0 (2017). Accessed: [date].
References: cf. HPTB
BibTeX
@misc{stedt-702,
  title  = {{*g-yak 'ARM / HAND / CUBIT'}},
  author = {STEDT},
  year   = {2017},
  note   = {Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) v1.0, etymon #702},
  url    = {https://larc-iu.github.io/stedt/etymon/702}
}