Reconstruction:Proto-Ryukyuan/teda

This Proto-Ryukyuan 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.

According to Kupchik (2021), borrowed from Amis cidal (“sun”).

Alternatively, ultimately from a source deriving from Chinese 天道.^[1] Proponents of the Chinese derivation use other examples where Sino-Japanese au correspond to Proto-Ryukyuan *-a(a); e.g. *sata (“sugar”), *katya (“mosquito net”), etc. Hattori (2018, 67) also cites Old Okinawan correspondances in the Omoro Sōshi, such as すぢや (suj(iy)a, “all living things”, 素性 (sujō)), ひやし (h(i)yashi, “rhythm”, 拍子 (hyōshi)), や (ya, “look, appearance, way”, 様 (yō)), きや (k(i)ya, “capital”, 京 (kyō)), いちらご (ichirago, “Ichirō”, 一郎子 (Ichirō-go)), たら (tara, “Tarō”, 太郎 (Tarō)). However there are problems:

• *sata (“sugar”) has word-final length, which could imply the diminutive suffix *-a(a).
• *katya (“mosquito net”) is strangely absent from all Amami dialects except for Tokunoshima and Yoron, where it instead uses *kaya, but it is attested in Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama topolects, implying a loanword from a Chinese source in (Proto-)Okinawan with a spread to the south.

The word *pi refers to days; this word likely displaced this meaning due to a taboo homonym *pi (“vulva”).

*teda

1. sun

• Northern Ryukyuan:
  • Kikai: 天道, 太陽 (θida, θïda)
  • Kunigami: 天道, 太陽 (thidā)
  • Northern Amami Ōshima: 天道, 太陽 (θeda)
  • Okinawan: 天道, 太陽 (tīda)
  • Okinoerabu: 天道, 太陽 (θida)
  • Southern Amami Ōshima: 天道, 太陽 (θïda)
  • Tokunoshima: 天道, 太陽 (θida)
  • Yoron: 天道, 太陽 (tida)
• Southern Ryukyuan:
  • Miyako: 天道, 太陽 (tida)
  • Yaeyama: 天道, 太陽 (tida)
  • Yonaguni: 天道, 太陽 (tidan)

• Thorpe, Maner Lawton (1983) Ryūkyūan Language History‎, Doctoral dissertation. University of Southern California, pages 336-337