Maspero 1912 provided over a dozen lists of comparative data with Vietnamese, other Vietic languages, and Austroasiatic languages, even though he asserted Vietnamese was related to Tai..
Trang 1BÁO CÁO TÓM T ẮT VỀ TỪ NAM Á VÀ
(A Brief Report on Proto-Austroasiatic and Proto-Vietic
Vocabulary in Vietnamese)
Mark Alves
1 INTRODUCTION
I have so far identified several hundred native Vietnamese words that are
Proto-Austroasiatic etyma or regional Proto-Austroasiatic words (over 200 words) or Proto-Vietic
etyma (over 500 words) These words are carefully selected based on comparative data of proto-language reconstructions and recurring phonological patterns among two dozen
Vietic lects This is a considerable update to previous studies of native vocabulary of
Vietnamese words These significant numbers of native vocabulary require that we change the perceived role of Chinese loanwords in the Vietnamese vocabulary Vietnamese is far
from a relexified language, having a sizeable quantity of significant Austroasiatic and
Vietic vocabulary However, how best to characterize this situation requires more
consideration
In this brief report, I (a) review the data sources and methods of analysis, (b)
discuss the findings based on semantic domains, and (c) offer some thoughts on what the
linguistic data suggests about the connection between Vietnamese and its linguistic
predecessor A list of the 200-plus Austroasiatic items is provided at the end of the paper in Table 2
2 PREVIOUS STUDIES
Vietnamese was first claimed to be related to other Austroasiatic languages in the
early 1850s Logan (1852-1855) linked it to what he called the “Mon-Annam” language
family Lexical data supporting this linguistic affiliation very gradually increased Maspero (1912) provided over a dozen lists of comparative data with Vietnamese, other Vietic
languages, and Austroasiatic languages, even though he asserted Vietnamese was related to Tai
To appear in the proceedings of the HỘI THẢO QUỐC TẾ NGÔN NGỮ HỌC LẦN THỨ IV held by the Institute of Linguistics in Hanoi 19-20 December 2020 (conference information at http://
www.vienngonnguhoc.gov.vn/bai-viet/chuong-trinh-hoi-thao-quoc-te-ngon-ngu-hoc-lan-thu-iv_756.aspx) The related conference
presentation in Vietnamese is at https://youtu.be/xRbUQppDkxI.
Trang 2In the second half of the 20th century, some basic wordlists were generated to propose possible Austroasiatic etyma in Vietnamese (e.g Thomas and Headley 1970, Huffman 1977, etc.) But generally, they focused on approximately 100 items of basic vocabulary Hồ Lê (1992) provided the longest list of possible Austroasiatic items, some
200 possible items However, he did not deal with issues of phonological correspondences
or of broader regional comparative linguistic data, meaning that data must still be sifted Much of it is supported in this study, but many other items must be excluded
In the 21st century, some 2,100 Proto-Austroasiatic items proposed by Shorto (2006) were published and then made available online in the Mon-Khmer Etymological Dictionary (2007) Also, 1,200 Proto-Vietic items were included in the same database, the tentative work of Ferlus Moreover, there are reconstructions of Proto-Tai (Li 1977 and Pittayaporn 2009), Old and Middle Chinese (I use Baxter and Sagart’s 2014 version), various electronic databases of Vietnamese (e.g the SEAlang Library Vietnamese), among other comparative resources These allow identification of etymological sources of
Vietnamese words with more precision than ever
3 DATA, METHODS, AND PRELINARY RESULTS
To Ferlus’s Proto-Vietic lists of a dozen Vietic language varieties, I have added data from wordlists of a dozen more lects (Arem (Kasuga 1994), So Thavung (Premsrirat
1998, 1999), Nguon (Nguyễn P P 1997), Muong Bi (Nguyễn V.K et al 2002), Babaev and Samarina 2018 (May), etc.) I compared this data with (a) Shorto’s Proto-Austroasiatic lexical reconstructions, (b) proto-language reconstructions of branches of Austroasiatic in the online Mon-Khmer Etymological Dictionary, (c) Early and Late Sino-Vietnamese words, and (d) databases and reconstructions of neighboring language families: Tibeto-Burman, Austronesian, and Hmong-Mien As I did so, I posited over 140 additional Proto-Vietic etyma and some 40 Proto-Austroasiatic etyma
I then ranked the Vietic data based on the number of Vietic sub-groups—including Viet-Muong, Pong-Cuoi, and the remaining archaic languages—with attestations for each posited Proto-Vietic etymon The evidence for sub-branching of Vietic is still being
debated, so these sub-groups are only general indicators for purposes of determining occurrences of words Words with attestations in two or three sub-groups are considered viable Proto-Vietic etyma However, Proto-Austroasiatic etyma seen in one sub-group of Vietic are also considered likely ancient lexical retentions This criterion increases the likelihood that the words are indeed of considerable time depth in Vietic, potentially dating
to the pre-Qin Đông Sơn era and even to the Neolithic period
Phonological patterns of initials, vowels, finals, and tones were considered as well
as other issues of semantic shift and the still poorly understood early history of language contact in the region The overall phonological correspondences are too complex to present
in this report, and I have described them elsewhere (Alves 2020) In general, the patterns are sufficient to establish connections between these Vietnamese words and variously
Trang 3Austroasiatic, Vietic, Old or Middle Chinese, or Tai In some cases, the origins of words cannot be determined as they so widespread, but in general, when words are
reconstructable in Austroasiatic, they are treated as Austroasiatic roots of the
corresponding Vietnamese cognates
The results so far are (a) nearly 200 Vietnamese words which are likely Proto-Austroasiatic etyma, (b) over two dozen words in Vietnamese which are cognate to words
in other Austroasiatic languages but not reconstructable to Proto-Austroasiatic, (c) over
500 Vietnamese words of strictly native Vietic origin (i.e not in Proto-Austroasiatic or multiple branches of Austroasiatic), and (d) about 100 Vietnamese words with Vietic reconstructions of likely Chinese origin and several of possible Tai origin Another 150 Proto-Vietic etyma and about two dozen Vietic words which are Proto-Austroasiatic etyma are not attested in Vietnamese Thus, the data reveal several hundred native Austroasiatic and/or Vietic words in Vietnamese, the largest number identified to date with sufficient data and methodology to increase confidence in the claims
As I assembled the data, I also marked them for part of speech and semantic fields, which allows for exploration of the culture and natural environment of Vietic people prior
to and soon after (i.e widespread early Chinese loanwords) the arrival of people from northern China I summarize this matter in Section 4
4 SEMANTIC DOMAINS IN THE NATIVE LEXICON OF VIETNAMESE
The primary semantic fields used in this study including those of the Max Planck Institute’s WOLD (World Loanword Database at https://wold.clld.org/) The semantic domains are very broad and need additional subcategories for further exploration of
cultural aspects: this matter is for a future study Table 1 lists the semantic domains with numbers of words in each The several hundred items, including both Austroasiatic and Vietic etyma, clearly demonstrate a solid core of native vocabulary
In Table 1, I have added a “supercategories” column to allow for convenience in making broader generalizations The first two supercategories of general experience (basic actions and technology, etc.) and consumption (agricultural and vegetation, etc.) each have some 200 items Words related to the individual (the body, the home, and clothing and grooming) consist of over 100 items These hundreds of native etyma do not give the sense
of a language that is highly separated from its predecessor: this lexical data very clearly connects Vietnamese to its Vietic and Austroasiatic origins
As for society, the systems of Vietnamese terms for kinship and pronouns have seen restructuring through language contact with Chinese (cf Alves 2018) And yet, the core 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person pronouns are native words, and both ‘grandchild’ and ‘great-grandchild’ are Austroasiatic etyma.Nearly 20 words of emotions, cognition, and speech and over two dozen words of sense perception are native etyma Chinese loanwords have
certainly entered these domains (e.g hi ểu ‘to understand’, thấy ‘to see’, etc.), and yet a
core native portion still remains
Trang 4Finally, dozens of Vietnamese words of spatial relations, time, and quantity are native etyma Vietnamese numbers are particularly notable: from ‘1’ to ‘10’ (as well as
‘100’), all are native etyma (cf Alves 2020 for complete discussion and lists of words) This is in contrast with Proto-Tai, which has borrowed Chinese numbers from 2 to 99 Whatever status the Chinese-speaking community had in the first millennium CE, the daily social circumstances were such that native numbers were apparently used predominantly in the likely multilingual Vietic community
Table 1: Semantic domains of Vietic and Austroasiatic etyma
Supercategories Semantic Domains Numbers
General experience Basic actions and technology 129
Consumption Agriculture and vegetation 82
Clothing and grooming 14
Social and political relations 4 Warfare and hunting 5
Speech and language 4
5 MAIN CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
The impact of Chinese loanwords on the Vietnamese lexicon, including both
standard Sino-Vietnamese and Early Sino-Vietnamese, is unquestionably profound Many thousands of Chinese loanwords, especially those of the bisyllabic compounds, can be found in Vietnamese, and in virtually all the semantic domains considered in this paper However, the question is to what degree these words have entered those domains and how
to characterize the resulting linguistic changes from Vietic to Vietnamese
While some Chinese words for body parts have been borrowed (e.g gan ‘liver’, tim
‘heart’, etc.), the noticeably high number of native words in this domain (nearly 100, including body parts as well as body functions and sensations) highlights the native
elements of the Vietnamese lexicon Beyond basic categories of numbers, body parts, and natural phenomena all made up of native etyma, there is a core Proto-Vietic vocabulary of agricultural production, warfare and hunting, parts of the home, clothing and grooming, and basic concepts of trade In addition, while the Vietnamese syllable structure has gone from a more Austroasiatic type to a more Sinosphere type, like those of Chinese, Tai, and
Trang 5Hmong-Mien, Proto-Vietic consonants and vowels are readily found in Vietnamese As for etymological origins of syllables, in preliminary exploration (in collaboration with James Kirby) of the inventory of syllables in Vietnamese, less than 25 percent of the 3,000-plus syllables (not including tones) consist of monosyllabic morphs of Chinese origin, with some percentage of homophonous native morphs Thus, despite the many thousands of Chinese loanwords, over 75 percent of the inventory of Vietnamese monosyllable morphs are native in origin Thus, we can suggest that Vietnamese is a Vietic language at its core, but with surrounding transformative effects of contact with Chinese
However, challenges arise in trying to understand developments of the period at the time of Chinese arrival Archaeological studies of northern Vietnam show material culture that is not widely supported in tribal Vietic groups, whose sociocultural circumstances are,
of course, distinct, but which is lexically represented in Vietnamese (e.g th ạp ‘situla’, sáo
‘flute’, v ạc/ thố ‘cauldron’, đèn ‘lamp’, etc.) Also, original terms for items that, according
to archaeological data, long preceded the arrival of the Chinese are today nevertheless of Chinese origin, such as those related to metallurgy (e.g đồng ‘bronze’, dao ‘dagger/large knife’, tên ‘arrow’, etc.)
As for the several hundred native words that date potentially to Proto-Vietic or early Vietic prior to major language contact with Chinese, analysis of their semantic domains—combined with information from archaeological and historical data—can
provide some tentative ethnolinguistic hypotheses about early Vietic culture at the time of Han Dynasty expansion into modern-day northern Vietnam Also, comparing the several hundred Vietnamese words of Austroasiatic and Vietic origin with the several hundred items of early Chinese loanwords should allow new hypotheses about sociocultural
changes in pre-recorded history of early Vietic and Sinitic contact These are research topics that I am pursuing and will share as results are available However, ideally, inter-disciplinary teams will take on such tasks to produce the most reliable results Research done in a mono-disciplinary vacuum is more likely to lead to incorrect assumptions about human history in the Red River Delta
Note: Readers are welcome to contact me via the internet to obtain the full database with
all Austroasiatic, Vietic, Chinese and Tai words and additional information The database
is a work in progress and will undoubtedly change and hopefully expand over time
REFERENCES
Alves, Mark J 2016 Identifying Early Sino-Vietnamese Vocabulary via Linguistic,
Historical, Archaeological, and Ethnological Data, in Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 9
(2016):264-295.https://doi.org/10.1163/2405478X-00902007
Alves, Mark J 2017 Etymological research on Vietnamese with databases and other
resources Ngôn Ng ữ Học Việt Nam, 30 Năm Đổi Mới và Phát Triển (Kỷ Yếu Hội Thảo Khoa H ọc Quốc Tế), 183-211 Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học Xã Hội
Trang 6Alves, Mark J 2018 Chinese Loanwords in Vietnamese Pronouns and Terms of Address
and Reference, in Proceedings of the 29th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-29), 2017, Volume 1, ed by Marjorie K.M Chan and Hana Kang,
286-303 Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University
https://www.academia.edu/33556335/Chinese_Influence_on_Vietnamese_Pronouns_a nd_Terms_of_Address_and_Reference_ToA_R_
Alves, Mark J 2020 Historical Ethnolinguistic Notes on Austroasiatic and Proto-Vietic Vocabulary in Vietnamese Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 13.2:xiii-xlv http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52472
Babaev, Kirill V and Irina V Samarina 2018 May language: Materials of the Russian-Vietnamese linguistic expedition (in Russian) YASK Publishing House
Baxter, William H and Laurent Sagart 2014 Baxter-Sagart Old Chinese reconstruction, version 1.1 (20 September 2014)
http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/BaxterSagartOCbyMandarinMC2014-09-20.pdf
Blust, Robert and Stephen Trussel 2010 Austronesian Comparative Dictionary Web
http://www.trussel2.com/ACD/acd-ak_a.htm Last accessed: 15 August 2020
Hà, Văn Tấn 2018 The Making of Việt Nam Thế Giới Publishers
Hồ, Lê 1992 Từ Nam Á trong tiếng Việt [Austroasiatic words in Vietnamese] in Tiếng
Vi ệt và Các Ngôn Ngữ Dân Tộc Phía Nam, 65-110 Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học
Xã Hội
Huffman, Franklin E 1977 An Examination of Lexical Correspondences Between
Vietnamese and Some Other Austroasiatic Languages Lingua 43.2:171-98
Kasuga, Atsushi 1994 A Study on Arem Phonology Master’s thesis Tokyo University
Logan, J R 1852-1855 Ethnology of the Indo-Pacific islands The Journal of the Indian Archipaelago and Eastern Asia VI (1852), VII (1853), VIII (1854), IX (1855)
Maspero, Henri 1912 Etude sur la phonétique historique de la langue Annamite: Les
Initiales Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 1-127
Mon-Khmer Etymological Dictionary SEAlang Mon-Khmer languages project
http://www.sealang.net/monkhmer/dictionary/ Last accessed 20 August 2020
Munda Etymological Dictionary SEAlang Mon-Khmer languages project
http://www.sealang.net/munda/dictionary/ Last accessed 20 August 2020
Nguyễn, Phú Phong 1997 Le parler Nguồn: Language d’un minorité ethnique des hautes vallées du Sông Gianh Qu ảng Bình, Việt Nam Université Paris 7, Denis Diderot
Nguyễn, Văn Khang, Bùi Chi, and Hoàng Văn Hành 2002 Từ điển Mường-Việt (A
Mường-Vietnamese dictionary) Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Văn Hoá Dân Tộc
Shorto, Harry L 2006 A Mon-Khmer Comparative Dictionary Paul Sidwell, Doug
Cooper, and Christian Bauer eds Canberra: Pacific Linguistics
Trang 7The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus The University of California,
Berkeley http://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-cgi/rootcanal.pl Last accessed: 15 August
2020
Suwilai, Premsrirat 1998 So (Thavung)-English-Thai Glossary, Part I The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal 28:189-218
Suwilai, Premsrirat 1999 So (Thavung)-English-Thai Glossary, Part II The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal 29:107-132
Thomas, David D and Robert K., Jr Headley 1970 More on Mon-Khmer Subgroupings
Lingua 25:398-418
SEAlang Library Vietnamese http://www.sealang.net/vietnamese/dictionary.htm Last accessed: 20 August 2020
Table 2: Austroasiatic etyma in Vietnamese (# indicates tentative reconstructions I have proposed based on available linguistic data)
Semantic
Fields
iatic
Proto-Vietic
agr nong basket for winnowing/flat
basket
#Cduŋ *ɗoːŋʔ agr mói (梅) a thing used when transplanting #C-mɔːl *c-mɔːlʔ
agr si banyan #ɟri *ɟ-riː
agr vừng sesame #lŋaː *v ɨŋ
agr mít jackfruit/breadfruit #mi:t #mi:t
agr tranh / gianh thatch-grass #plang *p-l ɛɲ
agr soài mango #svaaj NR
agr buồng bunch (of bananas) *buuŋ *b ɔːŋ
agr bí squash/pumpkin/waxgourd
(Bennicasa cerifera)
*cpiir *k-biːrʔ / k-piːrʔ agr cành branch *kaŋ *t-kɛːŋʔ / gɛːŋ agr cau arecanut *kaw *kaw
agr cây tree *kəl ‘to
cut down/fell trees’
*gəl / kəl
agr sàng winnow (n) *k-raːŋʔ *g-raːŋ
agr cày plough (v)/a plough (n) *lngal,
*ŋgal
‘plough’
*gal
agr trầu / giầu betel leaf *ml[ əw] *b-luː
agr vắt press (fruit)/wring (v) *pit *pat
agr trái fruit *pl əjʔ *p- leːʔ > pleːʔ /
tleːʔ agr bông flower/blossom *pnpuŋ *poːŋ
agr rễ root *ris *k-riɛs / k-rɛs |
res agr gạo rice, husked *rk[aw] ʔ *r-koːʔ
agr cám bran *skaamʔ *t-kaːmʔ
agr lá leaf *sla ʔ *s- laːʔ
agr măng bamboo shoots, edible *t1ɓaŋ *t-ɓaŋ
Trang 8Semantic
Fields
iatic
Proto-Vietic
agr chuối banana *t1luuj[ ] *caːjʔ
agr sọ taro *t2rawʔ *s-roːʔ
agr bưởi pomelo NA *paːs
agr riềng galangal (Alpinia galanga) NA *b-riɛŋ
agr mía sugarcane NA *k-m ɛːʔ
agr săng wood/plant NA *s-raŋ
animals công peacock #k- voːŋ *k- voːŋ
animals sủa bark (v) #-roh/rɔh *k-rɔh
animals rắn snake *[b]sa ɲʔ *p-səɲʔ
animals rận louse on the body *[d]mrəɲ
ʔ *m-rəɲʔ animals rái otter *bhe ʔ *p- seːʔ
animals [rắn] mối lizard *ɓulʔ *ɓoːlʔ
animals chó dog *c ɔʔ * ʔa-cɔːʔ
animals cầy dog *cgəj #gəj
animals gấu bear (n) *c- guːʔ /
c-kuːʔ *c-guːʔ / c-kuːʔ animals chim bird *-ciːm *-ciːm
animals cúi (heo cúi) pig *cur *guːrʔ | kuːrʔ animals sừng horn of animals *d2raŋ *k-rəŋ
animals mỏ beak *ɟɓuəh *k-ɓɔh
animals cánh wing *kaiɲʔ *kɛːŋʔ
animals cá fish *kaʔ *ʔa-kaːʔ
animals khái tiger *klaʔ *k-haːlʔ > kʰaːlʔ animals mọt termite/weevil *kmuət *k-mɔːc
animals con sấu crocodile/alligator *krɓə[ə]ʔ *k-ruːʔ
animals trâu buffalo *krpiiw,
*krpuʔ *c-luː animals cục tác cackle (v) *ktaat *k- taːk
animals vượn gibbon *kwaaɲʔ *k-vaɲ
animals ác crow *k ʔaak *kr- ?aːk
animals rệp ‘bedbug’ centipede *kʔip *kr-siːp
animals muỗi mosquito/fly *muujs *m ɔːs (final *-l?) animals cú owl *ŋk[awʔ] *kuːʔ
animals sóc squirrel *pr ɔɔk *p-r ɔːk > kʰlɔːk animals ruồi fly (n) *ruj *m-rɔːj
animals tôm crayfish/shrimp *sum *soːm
animals trăn python *t1lan,
*t1laan
*k-lən animals ve vẩy ‘to
wag’
shake/wag (the tail) (v) *was *vasvas basic
act./tech
bè raft (n) #b ɛ: #b ɛ:
basic
act./tech
mục ‘rotten,
rot’
rotten/moldy #ɓuk #ɓuk basic
act./tech
cạo ‘to scrape/scratch/
shave’, ( nạo )
scratch/scrape #ka:w #ka:wʔ
Trang 9Semantic
Fields
iatic
Proto-Vietic
basic
act./tech
nhắp close (eyes, mouth) (v) #k- ɲVp *k- ɲap > kʰɲap basic
act./tech
tát bail out/drain water (v) #ksaːc *ʔa-saːc basic
act./tech
rút gather/pull out w hands (v) #p-ruuc *p-ruːc basic
act./tech
vòng
‘circle/round’
round/circle #wV:ŋ #βɔŋ basic
act./tech
liếm lick (v) *[c]limʔ *-lɛːmʔ basic
act./tech
gãy break/break off/snap (v) *[d]kah #gas basic
act./tech
vác carry (on shoulder) (v) * ɓɔʔ
(tentative
#bak)
* ɓaːk
basic
act./tech
múc draw water (v) * ɓək * ɓuːk basic
act./tech
méo misshapen/malformed *ɓiəwʔ
‘aslant’
#ɓiəwʔ basic
act./tech
nổ burst/explode (intr.) (v) *bt1uh *ɗoh basic
act./tech
đập dam/dike *d əp ‘to
dam’
#t əp basic
act./tech
gõ knock/rap (v) *g[uə]h #gɔ:h basic
act./tech
cắt cut (v) *kat *kac basic
act./tech
lấy / lậy take (v) *li ʔ *leːʔ / -leːʔ basic
act./tech
ngồi sit/sit down (v) *ŋguj *ŋuːj basic
act./tech
vả ‘to slap’;
vỗ ‘to
clap/slap/flap’
slap (v) *pah ‘to
slap’ ; #-mpo:h
#tVmpa:h
basic
act./tech
bóc peel (tr.) (v) *p ɔɔk #p ɔ:k basic
act./tech
bửa split/cleave (wood) (v) *puh
(tentative
#paah in Vietic, Bahnaric, Vietic)
*bah | pah
basic
act./tech
chát sour/bitter/acrid *sraat #ca:t
basic
act./tech
đâm ‘to
stab/pierce’
beat/punch/pierce (v) *t1əm *təm basic
act./tech
dập bury/cover (v) *t1əp #dVp basic
act./tech
vẫy wave (v) *was #wVs basic
act./tech
vứt ‘to throw away’ / vất throw (v) *wat *-vət basic
act./tech
vặn twist/wring (v) *wi ɲ *va ɲʔ
Trang 10Semantic
Fields
iatic
Proto-Vietic
basic
act./tech
tắt put out (a fire) (v) NA (cf
Bahnaric
*pat, Katuic
*tampat, Khmuic
*bi:t)
*p-s ət / p-sat
basic
act./tech
dựng build (v) NA (cf
Bru patɯ̤ŋ)
*pr-təŋʔ > p-dəŋʔ ? basic
act./tech
đùm wrap (v) NA (cf
Katuic
*duom)
*duːm
basic
act./tech
nhỏ drip (v) NA (cf
Katuic
*tʄoh)
*k-̨ʄɔh
basic
act./tech
nắp cover/blanket/lid NA (cf
West-Bahnaric
*snap)
*s-nəp (< s-rn-əp)
body nanh tooth/fang/canine/tusk #Cna ɲ *k-n ɛːŋ
body lè stick/pull out tongue (v) #lVl *t-lɛːl
body gối knee *[ ]kuul *t- kuːlʔ
body trán forehead *[k]liəŋ *k-laːɲʔ
body b ụng ( cf lao
*buŋÆ belly/stomach *buuŋʔ *buŋʔ
body xương bone *cʔaaŋ *tʃ-ʔaːŋ > ɟaːŋ /
tʃɨəŋ body cằm chin *dgam #gam
body chân leg/foot *ɟəŋ *ɟiːŋ | ciɲ body mật gall *k.m ət *m əc
body gãi scratch (due to itch) (v) *kais *-kaːs
body chết die (v) *kc[ ə]t *k- ceːt
body cổ neck/throat *kɔʔ *koh
body khạc spit (v)/spittle *khaak *kr- haːk body địt fart/pass gas (v) *kt1iit #ti:t
body nách armpit *k ʔik *-n ɛːk
body ngứa itch/be itchy (v) *lŋaaʔ #ŋa:ʔ
body miệng mouth *miəɲʔ *mɛːŋʔ
body vai shoulder *paʔ *ɓaːj
body sống back/ridge *ruŋʔ *k- roːŋʔ
body ruột intestines *ruuc *rɔːc
body tay arm/hand *sii[ ʔ];
*t1ii ʔ *siː body lá lách spleen *slaʔ *laːʔ ~ laː body răng tooth *sraŋ *k-saŋ
body tóc hair on the head/feather *suk *-suk