Talk:毛

Etymology / reconstruction

@Chuterix, do we have any hard evidence that supports the existence of 毛 as /ka/?

The only lead I'm finding is the NKD's entry for 白髪, where they opine 『(上代は「しらか」か。「か」は「け(毛)」の交替形で、元来は白い毛をいったものという)』. (Etym missing from Kotobank's version, unfortunately.)

However, for all other terms that have 被覆・露出 forms like this with alternating vowels, the 被覆 form ending in /a/ only appears when the word is not the last one in a compound. So I don't think the か in しらか can be 毛. Nor can I find any word starting with 毛 where this is read as か.

Your recent edits also point to 鬘 (katsura) as deriving from 毛. However, my local NKD states that this word appears as かづら until the Muromachi period, and might derive instead from 『「かみ(髪)つら(蔓)」の変化』. Such a derivation would explain the nasalization and voicing.

We appear to be left without any 交替形: evidence for /ke/, but nothing really for /ka/. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:14, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Note: The NKD etymologies (and the Nihon Shoki attestation) I referenced are from Sakura Paris (a site where an instance of NKD seems to be hosted). A lot (if not all but at least the original NKD 1988) of the etymologies are there. That included the shiraga and katsura etymology. But didn't know kadura was the initial reading until the Muromachi Period.

See here and click on "L052534". However the siraka/ga seems to be spelled "白髪".

I didn’t compare 髪 (kami, “hair of the head”) because that seems to derived from 上 (kami, “top”) according to the NKD.

The edition of the Daijiten most likely changed on Kotobank; see your talk page for more info. Chuterix (talk) 23:53, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Also note that ke is in otsu pronunciation ke₂, otherwise it would be kye (ke₁). Chuterix (talk) 12:44, 5 January 2023 (UTC)