[Lingtyp] Mapping /l/ to 'tongue'

[Stefan Savić]

Dear Ian,

In isiXhosa the word for language is *ulwimi* and it is reconstructed as
Proto-Bantu **dudimi *(
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Bantu/d%CA%8A%CC%80d%C9%AA%CC%81m%C3%AC#cite_note-1
) although Proto-Bantu *d > Nguni l is a regular sound change.

Best,
Stefan



On Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 4:29 AM JOO Ian via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> Dear typologists,
>
> I have noticed two interesting parallel phenomena:
>
> 1. Latin *dingua* 'tongue' replaced by *lingua*, for unknown reason;
> 2. Middle Chinese *zyet* 舌 'tongue' replaced by *lei* 脷 in Cantonese (and
> other southern Sinitic lects), which is apparently for euphemistic reason -
> Cantonese *sit3* 舌 sounds similar to *sik6* 蝕 ’to corrode’ - but still
> unclear why it had to be *lei* among all other sounds.
>
> There seems to be diachronic pressure to map /l/ into ’tongue’. This is in
> line with the fact several typological studies confirming that /l/ is
> abnormally common in words for ’tongue’ in world’s languages (Blast et al.
> 2016, Joo 2020, Erben Johansson et al. 2020).
>
> I would thus like to ask (historical) typologists whether you are aware of
> similar phenomena where the common term for ’tongue’ has unexpectedly
> acquired /l/, either via irregular sound change (like Latin) or lexical
> replacement (like Cantonese).
>
> From Otaru,
> Ian
>
> *References*
>
> Blasi, Damián E et al. “Sound-meaning association biases evidenced across
> thousands of languages.” *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
> of the United States of America* vol. 113,39 (2016): 10818-23.
> doi:10.1073/pnas.1605782113
>
> Joo, Ian. "Phonosemantic biases found in Leipzig-Jakarta lists of 66
> languages" Linguistic Typology, vol. 24, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-12.
> doi:10.1515/lingty-2019-0030
>
> Erben Johansson et al. "The typology of sound symbolism: Defining
> macro-concepts via their semantic and phonetic features" Linguistic
> Typology, vol. 24, no. 2, 2020, pp. 253-310. doi:10.1515/lingty-2020-2034
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 朱 易安
> JOO, IAN
> 准教授
> Associate Professor
> 小樽商科大学
> Otaru University of Commerce
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 🌐 ianjoo.github.io
> 📞 +81 (0)134-27-5422
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>
>
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