The Sino-Tibetan Existential *s-ri

Abstract

In his recent paper on deictics (Benedict 1983), the author overlooked a key Chinese 'this/that' that occurs as a loan use (in Shijing) of .1k 398a [g-ltigi/dillgt 'solid; [fill solid:] fill, stop up; full; [solid product:] fruit; riches; enrich', the (palatalized) *s- prefix allofan of 403a (loan use) liet/ligt 'solid, compact, dense; full and rich (sc. ears of grain)'. As already indicated (Benedict 1979, which cites only 398a; see Benedict -forthcoming for the initial reconstruction, revised from the schema in Benedict 1976), the PST root here is *(s-)ra(-s), with regular *r > -1-, *-s > -t and *a > -ig- before dental final (see the Conspectus); cf. WT sra(-n) 'hard, solid', sran-ma r•-• srad-ma 'peas, beans'; also sras 'child' (resp.) 'fruit (of the womb)'; Tamang rara roro ('high B' tonal series) 'fruit',from *hraB < *s-raB: Lushai raj < *ras 'fruit; bear fruit'; Pa-o (Karen) geng ra ('high B' series) 'child', from *hraB < *s-raB; for the semantics, cf. Proto-Karen (generally) *saB < zaB 'fruit; offspring'; PTB *za 'child'.