Reconstruction:Proto-Mon-Khmer/(ʔ)boʔ

This Proto-Mon-Khmer 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.

Although the label of Proto-Mon-Khmer has mostly been abandoned or rejected, this reconstruction, which sourced from Shorto (2006)'s reconstruction for Proto-Mon-Khmer, currently does not have an appropriate Proto-Austroasiatic reconstruction. This reconstruction therefore should not be taken at face value as a state-of-the-art reconstruction for Proto-Austroasiatic, but instead ought to be treated as a valid cognate set.

Proto-Mon-Khmer

Etymology

• Proto-Mon-Khmer: *(ʔ)boʔ (Shorto, 2006, #113)

Likely a nursery word, although its distribution throughout the various branches of Mon-Khmer suggests that it could be genuinely ancient.

Shorto (2006) and Blust & Trussel (ACD) relate Javanese ibu and Malay ibu to a language, which may be of Austroasiatic descent, ancestral to Indonesia prior to the arrival of Western Malayo-Polynesian speakers.

Noun

*(ʔ)boʔ

1. mother

Descendants

• Aslian:
  • Temiar: bo
  • Jehai: baboʔ
• Khasic:
  • Pnar: bei, be
• (?) Nicobaric:
  • Car Nicobarese: popo (interjection)
• Monic:
  • Mon: ၝောံ (bɜ̀ˀ, “female of animals”)
• Pearic:
  • Pear: pè
  • Western:
    • Chong: peː
• Proto-Vietic: *-bəːʔ (“wife”) (Ferlus, 2007) (see there for further descendants)
• >? Old Javanese: babu
  • > Javanese: ꦧꦧꦸ (babu) (inherited)
    • → Brunei Malay: babu
    • → Malay: babu
    • → Indonesian: babu
  • → Balinese: ᬩᬩᬸ (babu)