Talk:물

Etymology

물 seemed to have the primary meaning of "sea" in the ancestor language, which is still present in eg. 물개/바닷개 ("seal"), 물 ("tide water"), 물때 ("tide time"), 밀물 ("rising tide"), 썰물 ("ebb"), 물보라/물바래 ("spray (of tide water)"), 물마루 ("crest of waves"), 물멀미 ("seasick"), 물너울 ("swell on the sea"), and thus may be compared with PIE *móri. Also worth noting is the Chinese word for "sea" - 海 (hǎi, OC *m̥lɯːʔ). 60.240.101.246 07:16, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Old Chinese wasn't m̥ǝ̄́? 71.66.97.228 07:31, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

*m̥lɯːʔ or hmlɯːʔ is in the Zhengzhang Shangfang/Pan Wuyun system. They treat m̥l- as distinct from m̥-, to explain why other characters in the same phonetic series, such as 悔 (huǐ, *m̥ɯːʔ) and 晦 (huì, *m̥ɯːs) developed -w- in Middle Chinese, but 海 (hǎi, *m̥lɯːʔ) didn't. The Baxter/Sagart system reconstructs 海 and 悔 both as *m̥ˁəʔ. The Zhengzhang system probably got it right here. (The Baxter/Sagart system reconstructs an unbelievably large consonant inventory for Old Chinese!) Compare also Burmese မြစ် (mrac, "river"). 60.240.101.246 09:54, 18 October 2011 (UTC)