Talk:尿

Pronunciation 2

Is 噓噓 related? —suzukaze (t・c) 06:37, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

Similarities in Polish and Japanese

The diminutive 'sisiu' and 'siusiu' in Polish both come to mind ('si' forms a 'she/shi' sound), although I'm not familiar with Wiktionary procedures, so I'll just leave this here. Probably arrived via steppe nomads, as a diminutive of the verb 'sikać' (to urinate) and its conjugations 'siku' (singular) and 'siki' (plural).

I've recently also heard the Japanese pronounce 'shito' or a diminutive of it as 'shiku' or 'shiko' in the anime Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, or Sakamichi no Apollon, as a reference to the similarities between these languages and some common source.

184.146.146.112 23:08, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

You might also be interested in Japanese おしっこ (oshikko), Mandarin 噓噓／嘘嘘 (xūxū) /ɕyɕy/, Cantonese 殊殊 (syu⁴ syu^4-2) /ɕyɕy/, and 尿#Pronunciation_2. Maybe even 屎 (“feces”). —suzukaze (t・c) 23:29, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

More likely is the possibility that this /ʃi/ sound found in so many different languages for these terms is onomatopoeia for the sound of a stream of urine. Compare also English slang slash (“urination”), utilizing similar sound shapes. The -ko suffix is a common diminutive in Japanese, and unlikely to be any indication of cognacy with Polish.

The unlikeliness of a relation becomes even more apparent when we trace the etymology of the Polish term sikać: from Proto-Slavic *sьcati (“to urinate”), in turn from Proto-Indo-European *seykʷ- (“to filter; to moisten”).

@184, if you're at all interested in phonetics and how languages line up, you might find this Zompist article interesting: How likely are chance resemblances between languages? The author lays out a clear explanation for why this kind of phonetic + semantic overlap is actually not that uncommon, and how actually any two languages will have a few words like this in common. He even provides mathematical models for predicting the likelihood. It's all pretty solid. Even if you're not a math geek, the article is still worth a look-through. Cheers, ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 17:33, 1 December 2020 (UTC)