Reconstruction:Proto-Ryukyuan/kita
Proto-Ryukyuan
editEtymology
editCognate to Old Japanese 北 (KITA, “north”), but it is not clear whether this is an early loan from Old/Middle Japanese. See the reconstruction notes for further information.
Pronunciation
edit- Tone class: A?
Noun
edit*kita
Reconstruction notes
editThe general Ryukyuan term for "north" is *nisi, a cognate to Old Japanese 西 (nisi, “west”). However, the Yamatohama dialect has a distinction: nishi means "west; north wind", but kita only means "north".
Just as *minami (“south”, obsolete), Jarosz (2023) argues that it is not likely that loanwords from mainland Japanese should just be limited to remote dialects, and not spread throughout Ryukyuan.
Descendants
edit- Northern Ryukyuan:
References
edit- Jarosz, Alexandra (2023) “Common Kyushu-Ryukyuan substratum in maritime vocabulary: A preliminary analysis”, in The Poznań Society for the Advancement of Arts and Sciences, , →ISSN, pages 7-46