Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/m/s-laj ~ s-lej

This Proto-Sino-Tibetan entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Sino-Tibetan

Etymology

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: ?
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *m/s-lay ⪤ *s-ley (Matisoff, STEDT); *m-lay ⪤ s-lay (Michailovsky, 1991; Weidert, 1987; Benedict, 1972); *s-lay (LaPolla, 1987); *-lay ⪤ -ley ⪤ -lya (Matisoff, 1985); *-ley (French, 1983)

Other PST roots for "tongue" in STEDT:

• *s-l(j)a (“tongue”)
• *s-ljam (“tongue, flame”)
• *s-ljaːw (“to lick, tongue”)
• *m/s/g-ljak (“to lick, tongue”)

The descendants listed below may as well be derived from one (or more than one of) the ones above. It's not always possible to unambiguously assign descendants to one of these etymons (allofams), especially in cases like Old Chinese where there exists considerable variation in the reconstructions. Hence the amalgamation of synonymous descendants here. See *m/s/g-ljak (“to lick”) for more.

Noun

*s-laj ~ s-lej

1. tongue

Descendants

Descendants listed hereafter are for words with the sense "tongue" only. Words with the sense "to lick" in daughter languages are mostly cognate to these and can be found at *m/s/g-ljak.

• Old Chinese: 舌 (shé) /*mə.lat/ (B-S); /*ɦbljed/ (ZS) ("tongue")

  (likely) → Proto-Hmong-Mien: *mblet (“tongue”) (> Hmong (RPA): nplaig)

  • Middle Chinese: 舌 (ʑiᴇt)

**:

→ Japanese: 舌 (ぜつ, ​zetsu)
Korean: 설 (舌, seol)
Vietnamese: thiệt (舌)

• • • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 舌 (shé) (shé, /ʂɤ³⁵/)
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 舌 (shé) /ɕiːt̚²/, /ɕiːt̚³/
    • Wu
      • Shanghai: 舌 (shé) /z̻ə̆ʔ¹²/
  • Min
    • Min Nan
      • Taiwan: 舌 (shé) /t͡ɕiʔ⁵/ (colloquial); /ɕi̯at̚⁵/ (literary)
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: ལྕེ (lce, “tongue”), ལྗགས (ljags, “(polite) tongue”)
• Sal
  • Bodo-Garo
    • Garo: sre (“tongue”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: လျှာ (hlya, “tongue”)
    • Loloish
      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꉐꆂ (hxa nie, “tongue”)
• *bleᴬ (Luangthongkum, 2013)
  • S'gaw Karen: ပျ့ၤ (plaȳ)
  • Western Pwo: ဖြေ
• Proto-Kuki-Chin: *lay
  • Khomic
    • Khumi Chin: bälai (“tongue”)